I'm Sorry... But They're Just Shoving Class Warfare In Our Faces Now...

[WillyT]

Cutting Food Stamps while keeping Farm Subsidies...

Sabotaging Affordable Health Care while offering NO alternative...

Standing in the way of a minimum wage increase, trying desperately to unravel the social safety net, and a thousand other stories that basically say...

We got ours... we are now taking YOURS... so fuck off and die already.





DULink: http://election.democraticunderground.com/10024054387

And: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/18/walmart-food-drive_n_4296618.html?ref=topbar

[JHB]

1. Hey, some people need that money...

They may be in the Forbes top 10, but how will they ever get the #1 spot if they piss money away on associates?

The Walton Family is the richest family in the world, their wealth inherited from Bud and Sam Walton, founders of the world's largest retailer, Walmart.[1] The three most prominent living members (Jim, Rob and Alice) have consistently been in the top ten of the Forbes 400 since 2001, as were John (d. 2005) and Helen (d. 2007) prior to their deaths. Christy Walton took her husband John's place after his death.

Collectively, the Waltons own over 50% of the company, and are worth a combined total of $150 billion (as of August 2013), valuing them as the wealthiest family in the world.[2]

In 2011, six members of the Walton family had the same net worth as the bottom 30% of American families combined.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton_family

[gtar100]

15. And I can only shake my head at people who shop there.

There will always be an excuse - and often a very compelling reason to go back there. But jesus! When will these people learn that they are giving money to the very people who are *keeping* them poor.

And fuck y'all who shop there and really do have the means and ability to go elsewhere.

[musical_soul]

21. Most of the bad stuff that can be said about Wal-Mart....

Can be said about other retailers.

Show me the retailer who is paying their associates a whole lot past minimum wage.

Show me the retailer that usually hires full time.

We should definitely give other stores a chance. I like to shop at Food Lion after they gave out all those WIC cards during the shutdown. I also like Ingles because it's sort of local (limited to a few states). There's a local grocery store up the street that has good deals on meat. I get my prescriptions from Rite Aid.

Thing is a few dollars here and there add up for some people. I don't think they should be looked down upon.

[99Forever]

49. One word.

Costco.

They pay well above minimum wage and hire mostly full time.

Oh and BTW, most Costco employees are union.

[LuvNewcastle]

51. Not everybody has a Cotco, especially those of us in the Deep South.

Pretty much every town has a Walmart. I've stopped shopping at Walmart, though. I buy my groceries at regular grocery stores and buy what's on sale. I save a lot of money that way. I buy the rest of my stuff at dollar stores, hardware stores, and other specialty stores and I get it at least as cheap as Walmart, often less. Walmart isn't so cheap anymore. None of the big superstores are. I spend more time shopping than most people do, but I save a lot of money. Don't get fucked by Walmart or Target or any of the big chains.

[99Forever]

54. Understood.

But long before I had even heard of Costco, I, like you stopped giving any business to the bloodsucking Waltons. Even if they were cheaper pricewise, (which they really aren't) I'll pay more elsewhere. I absolutely HATE Walmart and everything it stands for.

[homegirl]

58. Mian St. Ghost Town

My first exposure to Walmart was in Tulare, CA. The main street was deserted, more than half the store fronts were boarded up but the Walmart parking lot was full. Walmart had driven all those businesses into bankruptcy. I have never set foot in a Walmart store and never will.

[BobbyBoring]

65. I remember Main St.

One family owned a shoe store, another a haberdashery, one owned a small grocery and they all had one thing in common. They paid their employees a living wage and at that time, it wasn't much. One of my uncles worked in a clothing store and his wife did part time book keeping at home. They were able to raise 6 children (The Catholic minimum at the time) in relative comfort. The biggest stores were like what they called the "Dime stores". They paid OK too.

Then came the big boxes and the rest is history. The sad thing is this is all by design. Wages have been suppressed to the point that people have to stretch every nickel and that means going to the big boxes. Until ALL of use refuse to use them, this will continue.

[jtuck004]

62. $2 an hour abovve minimum wage for a signficant number of Cosco part-timers, whose hours they

keep under part time, working two jobs to make it. The sample givers get it even worse.

In some ways they are better, and do hire a significant number of others, and pay them better, but their hands aren't spotless, and that is profit for them.

And so is the $50 card that a lot of people can't afford to shop there with, which cuts down on a huge amount of overhead.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

29. I went in there a few times in 02-03. I never want to go back.

It was depressing.

[YoungDemCA]

2. The days have long gone when many of the wealthiest and most powerful Americans...

...have pretended to give a damn about the welfare of the "masses."

[Boomerproud]

11. I hope they are beginning to see beyond their bubble.

It ain't pretty-and they only have themselves to blame for their selfishness.

[FiveGoodMen]

64. If the wealthy (and therefore more powerful) can't be bothered to care about the masses

Then we can't afford to allow the wealthy to exist.

[IrishAyes]

3. Sickening.

They won't understand either when the proles rise up as they're beginning to do already.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

30. There will be plenty of rent-a-cops to mow them down to protect the Wantons...err Waltons.

[IrishAyes]

33. The Romanoffs had guards too.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

39. Did they? I'm not sure that they had what we might think they did, but like King Louis and Marie A.

they met pretty much the same fate.

But I digress. There won't be any revolution like that, and if there was there won't be any America afterward. I doubt that any of us could envision the kind of hard struggle that it would take (present company included), with a military and militarized police force like the USA has, in order to bring about a correction in the 1%.

It's not that I am against positive change and the singing of the National Razor, but in order to accomplish such a task many would suffer that do not deserve it, and some that deserve it would walk.


My original point was that like Iran, and their attempted quasi Persian spring/revolution the government would just shut it all down so you wouldn't have squat: no phone, no face page no Nut-n-Honey. The last reference isn't a joke since without food what are you going to do besides starve?

Presidential kill switch + martial law = a fucking lock down.


If you think I am joking, and for example, have you ever considered that this site has outright banned those Liberal/Progressive/LGBT that have run contrary to its narrative from time to time. Poof. And this is supposed to be a Democratic site.


Food for though while you have it. And peace.

[IrishAyes]

48. I'm certainly not in favor of any kind of violent uprising.

Last edited Tue Nov 19, 2013, 02:35 PM - Edit history (1)

I can't stop myself from expecting it, though, knowing human nature. Even now, ahead of time, I'd recognize the bloody futility. That won't stop it either. Only a vast improvement in prole living conditions has a snowball's chance in hell to head it off at the pass. I'm a lot better off than many people - at least I'm a genius in stretching what little I do have - but I can't help getting very upset about their suffering. Don't worry, I'm too old and gimpy to do anything but yell my head off and vote, vote, vote.

And the ones who have my deep sympathies are NOT those RW militia types hiding out in the woods, plotting secession or premeditated violent overthrow of the established government. They have no more place in a civilized society than the plutocrats. They're fascist and nazi supremacists who don't want to improve the lot of all; they simply want to claw their way to the top of the heap and resume business as usual.

[snort]

56. I have become so.

The money pigs being dragged from their burning compounds and put to death by the poor and starving would turn this shit around for a very long time. I do not find this appealing, but it sure had a real effect in the past and history has a way of repeating itself.

[IrishAyes]

59. Remembering also how revolution always eats her children,

I cannot prefer that path. I hope you understand that's not sympathy for the overlords. If I have sympathy for anyone, it's for their victims. And I think/hope I understand your feelings and reasoning too much to think ill of you. Perhaps it's not really your own first choice either, but you feel the inevitable necessity to be closer at hand than I perceive. If we disagree on where the tipping point lies, I shall not fault you. And I say that with every expectation that our communication may be monitored.

[snort]

68. They stole my house and home

using forged documents. My biggest problem would be my next choice: pitchfork or torch? Perhaps a flaming pitchfork. I'll work on that, it could be a real money maker.

[IrishAyes]

69. You have every right to be angry and to seek redress. I'm simply saying please be careful

how you go about it, in order to achieve the best results for your own sake, which incidentally I place far above theirs. Throwing yourself on a sword will only amuse them.

[closeupready]

66. Pre-Chavez, the wealthy in Caracas lived in gated compounds, guarded

by armed personnel. I'm pretty sure they thought, somehow, this type of security would prevent their government from turning leftward.

The analogy is not perfect by any stretch, but the oft-mentioned axiom 'those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it' does apply well.

[IrishAyes]

67. Undeniably.

With the immense successes of passive resistance movements like those led by Gandhi and King, I have to give that method preference. But reality in the person of history shows that when all other avenues of improvement are blocked, enough pressure can and will build up to blow the top off a society. Those who think they can achieve security forever from the results of their abuse, or who say violent revolution is absolutely doomed in the modern world, are living a fantasy. Hunger trumps weapons every time.

[maddiemom]

75. And didn't many of their guards turn on them?

[Laelth]

4. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[pa28]

5. Pay your workers a living wage.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. Trickle Down, baybee. And don't ask Obama, either. He believes in that mess.

[liberal_at_heart]

14. +1

When will start talking about the real problem in this country? The fact that our economy is still to this day based on Reagan's Trickle Down economics.

[TBF]

50. You're half way there - Reagan was bad BUT

he only had that opportunity because this country has been brainwashed into thinking capitalism is the only economic system out there.

At the very least we should be massively redistributing via taxation, because there is no reason on this earth that four people with the name Walton should have more money than 40% of the country.


I would prefer a socialist economic system (with democratic political system), but at the very least there are 3 steps that could turn things around quickly without going that far:

1. Return capital gains tax rates to full taxation (they have been cut by every administration since Reagan). It makes no sense that we pay 30% taxation (average) on income earned from jobs and only 15% taxation on income earned from investing. That is backwards - it only rewards the very rich.

2. Return to taxation rates of the 50s/60s. For individuals and corporations.

3. Double the minimum wage - give folks who are willing to work a fighting chance.

[Myrina]

72. Every 'elected official' from dog catcher on up (save a few) LURVES them some capitalism ...

.... and will swear with their hand on their heart and the other on the Bible that Jebus and the Founding Fathers brought capitalism to the US of A to defeat the evil Nazis and Stalinists and that's why we have to spread 'Democracy' (known these days as crony capitalism) to every corner of the globe.

[libdem4life]

7. Our time will come. It is a fact of history. We now have a big Hand-Up called social media. It is

making a difference. it didn't happen overnight, and it won't be changed overnight...to coin a phrase. I believe in The Hundredth Monkey concept...or the Tipping Point. At some point, and it does not take a majority, but there comes a point that social evolution takes a leap...maybe one back, but two forward.

The crooks can't get away with nearly the back-door dealing they are used to...on many levels. We have video, cell phones to record them, internet to hold them accountable forever and ever, and groups are forming just like here and sharing and finding common ground, if not complete agreement.

Hungry Americans. Arggggh.



Best I've got at present

[WillyT]

9. I Agree With You Totally... More And More People Are Catching On...

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

32. I totally disagree with you both.

Social media is media that can be shut off if the PTB feel threatened.

[WillyT]

36. Maybe... OTOH... That Might Just Be The Match That Strikes The Fire..

I'm not sure an entire generation being targeted, and cut off from social media, would go over very well.

Talk about radicalization...

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

46. This is a repost from another conversation a moment ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4056212

I'd like to rationally dissuade you from your argument for a moment. Facebook, Twitter and all the DotCom others...even your smartphone are what? They are businesses, and businesses can be regulated or shut down or off in the event of a threat.

At the very least the other businesses, Verizon (they suck but for a completely different reason), Comcast, RCN and others could easily slow down or limit data for a while seeing how many of them are in bed with the Federal Government.

There is not constitutional right to Facebook, Twitter or social media in general.

Yes, people would be pissed off, but they would also see the cops for what they really are, the military for what they really are and who they pay their homage to...not you not me.

I'm not so sure that people would want to take on the establishment and risk bodily injury or death over the lost use of Facebook...especially when the media will be portraying them as slacker hordes coming out of their mother's basement. Just you wait for that part.


Yeah, I'm jaded. But I marched for peace before we wasted Iraq a second time for Bush's legacy. What did we accomplish? Who really cared a fuck for it?

[BelgianMadCow]

77. Sorry Willy, but it's not maybe

shutting down social media happened in the Turkey uprising and the German police has the authority to do the same.
I don't even have to wonder about the US.

Now, my take on social media is different still. Whenever we participate THERE, we're not talking to other human bengs face to face. And very often, we talk to the like-minded, so there is no outreach. And at the same time, we make profiling and tracking laughingly easy. There are companies earning billions from implementing that kind of data mining, NOW.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

38. I hope you are right, but,

History guarantees nothing: it's boots on the ground and determination that does it.

And the push to corporatize, tame, sanitize, monitor, censor the internet and our communications are not an accident, and its certainly not for the benefit of us commoners.

[Trailrider1951]

8. Thank you WillyT

I have no words, but a world of this:

[WillyT]

10. Anytime Trailrider1951... Anytime...

[Shankapotomus]

12. What are they working for YOU for??!!

[WillyT]

25. I'm Sorry... I Have No Idea What That Means...

[Shankapotomus]

28. YOU = Walmart

Not you.

[KG]

13. why are you so bigoted against rich people? they need love like all the rest

fortunately they can find some on DU.

[salin]

16. Yep. And the implied message of the Walmart food drive

is that customers should (in addition to tax burdens for paying for medicaid/food stamps for workers), pay to donate goods to subsidize the multi-billion corporation so that they don't have to pay decent wages.

Here is the message: low wage earners who shop at Walmart, should give money to support Walmart workers having food for Thanksgiving - but the multibillion earning corporation should not (contribute/pay such that employees can afford Thanksgiving dinner.)

[WillyT]

17. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!!

[Marie Marie]

18. Screw the canned goods - eat the rich.

On second thought, I'm sure they wouldn't be very palatable. Shameless!

[WillyT]

19. Well... With Some Fava Beans And A Nice Chianti... Ya Never Know...

[Marie Marie]

20. LOL - that might help.

[lonestarnot]

31. Tougher than a boot too.

[Myrina]

73. ... and full of silicone in alot of cases ...

n/t

[ReRe]

22. Exactly

Rubbing our faces in it and saying "There ain't a thing you can do about it. Now pay up and shut up."

[tom_kelly]

23. In Tampa

Near the University Area there's Super Target right across the street from Walmart. The WM is in between the bus depot and the ST but still. I ride buses out of that depot almost every day and don't see too many people on the bus with WM bags. Its something that is ingrained in their heads or something. I don't live near there but if I did I'd walk across the street, and I mean across the street, to the ST.

[ErikJ]

24. $16 billion in profit--$3 billion in employee subsidies food stamps and health care.

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. I was trying to start a facebook meme about this...

They should get employees of other grocers that do pay a decent wage (Costco I am looking at you) and or everyone else....to deliver food to Walmarts food drive for the employees! Only make sure it is all food NOT bought at Walmart. Say for example Trader Joe's brand items...etc.

Giant/Eagle are unionized I think...

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

34. They probably wouldn't accept it.

[VanillaRhapsody]

35. but imagine the optics of that!!!

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

41. You would have to have a presser with said companies harassing another company...or so the

lawyers would sing it.


God, am I jaded tonight.

[VanillaRhapsody]

43. then have them across the street with big signs...Walmart Employees Food Drive!

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

45. It could be done on a local *grassroots level, but I doubt that a corp will do that to another corp.

*That is if the police gave permits for such a thing. They might. Then they might not if Walmart lawyers call the mayor, or select persons, governor.

[SomethingFishy]

70. I posted that pic with a rant on my FB yesterday..

Surprisingly even the righties thought it was crazy. Although I did threaten anyone who posted anything stupid that I would unfriend them

[defacto7]

27. Another thing to think about....

If you think about the cage of power they have made around themselves, what information do they actually get but what they are fed or what they create? I doubt they read the news the way we do... it's so.... depressing. I doubt they read DU.

They are money and power rich.... but they are dirt poor where information meets reality. The Marie Antoinette syndrome.

[VanillaRhapsody]

37. That's why they build their gated mansions...not because they are afraid of theft..

because they do everything they can to prevent themselves from having exposure to the rest of us...the unclean masses.

Kind of like the Cancun vacationers who told me they'd rather stay in Cancun vs other Mexican resorts because......they didn't have to see people begging in the street to make them feel guilty about the fact that their one vacation could feed an entire family for a year. So the reason they are behind gates are because if they see us...THEY have to feel guilty. They don't believe in luck but still think that they are just somehow better humans than we are. When they are exposed to us too closely....they are fully aware that it just isn't true.

[Rex]

40. Cutting food stamps or any aid to the poor is disgusting behavior.

Which as we know turns out to be ordinary for Repukes. The spirit is mean and petty in them. Knowing others suffer helps them sleep at night.

[NuclearDem]

42. Wow, Walmart sees absolutely ZERO problem with this?

"Hey, guys, some of our workers are still going hungry for some reason and can't have Thanksgiving. Someone should really do something about that!"

Fuck that, seize the Waltons' homes and profits and host a massive Thanksgiving feast for all the people they've screwed over, and let Sam's good for nothing offspring spend the rest of their days in a shelter.

[VanillaRhapsody]

44. They sure have nerve....Despicable..

[Deep13]

47. There's only one thing to do about class warefare.

Fight to win.

[bluedeathray]

52. It will continue as long as we f***ing LET it. nt

[Frank Cannon]

53. America has access to cheap Doritos and Honey Boo Boo.

They don't give a flying fuck about stuff like this. Panem et circenses.

[bluedeathray]

55. Pour vous assurer... nt

[Alkene]

57. Except Doritos aren't that cheap, and Honey Boo Boo is on cable.

But then I suppose not everyone could afford a day at the Colosseum, although there were career opportunities associated! Did they call them, Associates?

[JEFF9K]

60. The crazy thing is that most Republicans aren't rich ...

... but have gullibility management problems.

[amb123]

61. WORKERS OF AMERICA, OBEY OR DIE!

USA in 2013. Sickening.

[bigbrother05]

63. Made all the more necessary by the RW cuts in SNAP for the WM employees

Think there might be some irony that the same folks that keep them poor both in employment and opportunity are the also trying to keep them sick as well? They won't even let the ACA help them out with expanded Medicaid or subsidized policies.

Someday even the jaundice-eyed voters will see who is holding them and the country back.

[SomethingFishy]

71. As awful as this is Willy...

this may be what brings us back from the brink. I posted this on my FB with a rant yesterday, and there was not one stupid. or pro-Wal-Mart comment.

I work with a lot of Republicans too, some of them hard core righties and even they were facepalming..

I got quite a few "I knew they didn't pay well but I had no idea" comments..

The right has pushed this narrative that people are all takers. Sitting home watching their government paid for flatscreen, talking on their government paid for phone, eating their government paid for food. The problem is that the "constituents" always believe that that narrative is about "those people".
Now they are slowly discovering that they are "those people".

The one good thing about greedy assholes is there is never enough for them, and in order to get it all they have to show their true colors.

I remember the guy who took the behind closed doors video of Romney and his 47% comment. We need more of that. The people of this nation need to see what their elected officials really think of them, what is really said in those closed, cigar and cognac filled rooms, and then we may start to make some headway.

[DeSwiss]

74. ''What you resist, persists.'' ~Carl Jung

- We are their power source. Take it away and they crumble.

K&R

[Bolo Boffin]

76. Not only does Walmart rely on welfare to subsidize their crappy pay

Now they expect other employees to do the same. And you better believe these buckets are talked up in team meetings.

[yurbud]

78. "oh, but before you die, could you clean toilet, mow my lawn, raise my kids, and work in my store?"

[nyquil_man]

79. Any rich person who claims he's a victim of class warfare

has never heard of the French Revolution.

[4 t 4]

80. You think ......

[passiveporcupine]

81. just to make sure we are all on the same page with the facts

This is a food drive for Wal-Mart employees to help other needy Wal-Mart employees. It is not a public food drive asking customers for food. Not that that would be much worse.