Ohio Cops Get Off After Shooting Black Guy at Walmart

John Crawford III

I'm having a tough time figuring out the elements of this story. You have a cop shooting, which--let's face it--usually turns out well for the cops. The victim was a black guy, so that goes double. And he was (sorta) armed. That's where it gets sketchy. The victim was carrying a BB gun, an item for sale at the Walmart in question. Though the witness who called the cops alleged, initially, that the guy was aiming the gun at people. The surveillance video does not bear this out. At worst, he had the thing over his shoulder at one point, unless there is missing video or something. But, you might think, guy with a gun: threatening. Right?

But hold on. This was in Ohio, which is an open carry state. And how many of us has seen those Open Carry nuts, with an assault rifle* slung over their back or chest, buying a burrito at Chipotle or patrolling the aisles of a Home Depot? So, even if this guy "looked threatening," he wasn't even doing something that gun rights advocates would even think was unusual. So, how is it that the cop who shot the guy isn't culpable? Why is it that so many police seem to have a shoot first, ask questions later policy, and why is it that they seemingly always get out of it, even if they make a tragic mistake? And another thing: why is it that conservatives--who typically are distrustful of government in almost any form--nearly always also side with the cops in these cases? It's worth pondering, if only for the psychological riddles.

[Excerpt]

Cops Escape Charges For Killing Walmart Shopper Holding A BB Gun Sold At The Store

A grand jury decided not to file charges Wednesday against police officers who shot and killed 22-year-old John Crawford III inside a Beavercreek, Ohio, Wal-Mart for carrying a BB gun. They rejected charges of not just murder, but also reckless homicide and negligent homicide, finding instead that there was no probable cause to charge officers with anything. One of those officers is already back on the job. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

*PS. I don't care--at all--if "assault rifle" is the right term here. I know you gun fetishists are particular about gun terminology, but it has zero to do with the point: yahoos carrying big-ass guns.

Ultimate Income Inequality: 85 People as Rich as Half the World

When the question of income inequality comes up, I don't know what to say about it. I mean, when you hear that the Walton family--who inherited their fortunes--combined are worth the same as the bottom forty-two percent of Americans, you know in your gut "that's f**ked up right there." But just the same, what in the world could be done about it? In a capitalist society, what in the world can you do? Of course, it's complicated by the fact that the Waltons didn't exactly follow old man Sam's example of "Made in America." And they fight organized labor and any effort their employees make to improve their own fortunes.

That's the hardest bit to swallow. America's richest people--mostly older, white folks--often spend their time and money squeezing even more money out of the system. Fighting minimum wage laws, angling for lower taxes, subsidies and governmental special treatment. Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Brothers and others like them inject themselves into politics for the sole purpose of enriching themselves even further, usually at the expense of the poor, the working and the middle classes. What a person or people with billions of dollars needs with additional billions, I have no idea. It proves that greed is boundless.

And still, I don't know if there's any kind of answer to be had. It doesn't help that it's just been determined that eighty-five people on this Earth have the equivalent net worth of half the world. Other than a few noteworthy philanthropic billionaires like Bill Gates and William Buffett, you can bet most of them expend a lot of effort amassing yet more money.

[Excerpt]

There Are 85 People Who Are As Wealthy As Half The WORLD, Oxfam Reports

Worldwide economic inequality is looking rather bleak these days, according to a new report by relief organization Oxfam. Oxfam's "Working For The Few" report looked at Credit Suisse's "Global Wealth Report 2013" and Forbes' list of the world's billionaires from 2013 to conclude that 1 percent of the global population controls half of the world's wealth. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

McDonald's Has Tips for Their Poor (Very Poor) Employees!

Image from source, Think Progress

If you've ever been poor, you know how to stretch a dollar. You make big, cheap meals that have lots of left-overs. You eat a lot of Top Ramen. You switch to store brand everything, buy things out of the mark-down bin, shop at Big Lots or the dollar store. You get a part time job if you can, or squeeze in odd jobs for cash. If that's not enough, you might have a yard sale, or if you're really industrious, you might sell some things online. If you need money faster, maybe you opt for a pawn shop. And if you're truly desperate (and a little short on reasoning skills) you might go to a payday/title loan outfit.

I've been there. Once when I was first starting out as an adult, and once (a very long once) when I got into debt through a combination of bad decisions, bad luck and bad timing. Of course, you get advice from people, if you're willing to talk about your problems. All of the above and more. Some of it is useful, and a lot of it isn't.

But what if you were getting advice from the employer who pays you the crappy wages that perpetuate the reason you're poor? Well then (kind of like the Walmart help-a-needy-associate bins),  it can come off as insulting.

[Excerpt]

McDonald’s Advice To Underpaid Employees: Sell Your Christmas Presents For Cash
 
Tis the season for holiday spirit: Yule logs, egg nog, festive lights and exchanging gifts with loved ones. If you work for McDonald’s, though, be sure to save those receipts. McDonald’s McResource Line, a dedicated website run by the world’s largest fast-food chain to provide its 1.8 million employees with financial and health-related tips, offers a full page of advice for “Digging Out From Holiday Debt.” Among their helpful holiday tips: “Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash. . .”

Read more at: Think Progress

Walmart Employees Donating Food to Needy. . .Walmart Employees?

Image from source, Wonkette

You know, I'm sure this is all somehow President Obama's fault. But the optics of Walmart employees running food drives for needy Walmart employees are really, really sad.

[Excerpt]

Walmart Associates Run Thanksgiving Donation Drive So Co-Workers Can Eat People Food
 
One of these days, a modern-day Charles Dickens is going to write A Christmas Carol for our times, and it will be based on this story of a Walmart in Ohio, where employees organized “a food drive – not for the community, but for needy workers.” Total Dickens, right? The noble poor (broken of body but not of spirit), the historical significance, the double-talking bureaucratic fig leaf for the Establishment, even. . .

Read more at Wonkette

War on Thanksgiving!

Yep. Image from Think Progress

The War on Christmas is a manufactured, phony-baloney, insanely stupid non-troversy, made up by FOX "News" and perpetuated throughout Right Wing World. But you know what isn't phony? The War on Thanksgiving. Year after year, "Black Friday," the frenzy that is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, has been creeping backward into Thursday. This year, they've avoided all the niceties of letting people at least have their dinner, and then starting the sales. No, they're having sales in the evening, some in the afternoon, some at the crack of dawn on Thursday.

This means, of course, that a whole bunch of workers have to give up their traditional Thanksgiving dinner. This has been true for many years for firemen, police, military personnel, quickie-mart operators and other, sure. But all those folks knew what they were getting into. My husband refuses on principle to participate during times when people are being made to work when they don't want to. And me, I just don't want any part of the nutzoid shopping crowd.

But I still think the corporations are shooting themselves in the foot. But moving the time further and further back, they're diluting the whole tradition, and screwing themselves.

[Excerpt]

Seven Stores That Won’t Ruin Their Workers’ Thanksgivings
 
This year, more than a dozen retailers will open their doors on Thanksgiving Day, leaving millions of workers with little choice but to forgo their holiday to jumpstart the biggest shopping weekend of the year. With profits in mind, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Kmart, Macy’s, Kohl’s, J.C. Penney, Toys R Us, and more, have announced early Thanksgiving hours. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Black Friday Becomes. . .Gray Thursday?

Can you believe it's Walking Dead time in the stores again?
Image from source, USAToday

I did "Black Friday" only once. It was a bust for me, because the stores I happened to be interested in really weren't doing much. Lowe's and Home Depot didn't have throngs, at least not the year I tried it. I'm more apt to try Cyber Monday or other online specials. But some people have turned Black Friday into part of their holiday traditions.

In an effort to capitalize on the demand, and make up for a "shortened" shopping season (due to Thanksgiving being so late in the month this year), big stores like Walmart are jumping the gun further than ever, moving the starts of their big shopping events into dinnertime, and even all the way to dawn, Thanksgiving morning. I get the impulse, but I think they're really potentially defusing their own manufactured tradition. By spreading it out, and bleeding over an especially cherished holiday, they're going to alienate some, make family pariahs of others, and cause confusion about where to go, when. I'm sure there will be some savvy shoppers linked up with cell phones and iPads, networking with friends and family, and scheduling an all-day, all-night blitz. But no way your average shopper is going to do that.

I think they've muddied the concept, and are shooting themselves in the foot.

[Excerpt]

Walmart to launch Black Friday sales earlier

As the holiday shopping season kicks off, Walmart is the latest major retailer to announce an even earlier launch to annual Black Friday weekend sales — beginning at dinnertime Thanksgiving evening. Following a slew of similar announcements from stores including Target, Best Buy and Macy's, Walmart said today that it will hold two major sales events at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday evening, two hours earlier than last year. . .

Read more at: USA Today 

Doubling McDonalds' Paychecks Wouldn't Raise Menu Prices Much

Not McDonald's food, but one of several facts HuffPo
says the fast food industry doesn't want you to know.

Remember awhile back when the Papa John's founder (John McDoucherson, I think) balked at "ObamaCare," saying it would "force" him to raise the price of his pizzas by 14 cents each? And most rational people thought, "Wow! For 14 cents, the pizza workers can have health care? Great!" Well, except conservatives who for some reason don't want that. Anyway, the point is, nobody is going to cancel their pizza order over 14 cents, and look at all the good that would do.

Presently, McDonalds (and Walmart and others) are all in a twist over raising the minimum wage. Even though doing so wouldn't necessarily hurt business. In fact, it would create a larger base of consumers who can--you know--afford to buy things. What's more, given the big corporations' multi-billion dollar profits, they actually could afford to raise all of their workers' salaries, and still make a profit, just less profit. Or, they could raise their prices. But really, not all that much. Check out the story excerpted below.

And in a sidebar, I'd love a clarification on something. We hear, virtually every quarter, that Exxon-Mobil, BP and Shell have had record-breaking profits. In fact the biggest profits in the history of man. McDonalds makes billions too. A number of companies do. And then there's Walmart, with its handful of very, very lucky heirs. They rake in tens of billions in profits per year, per person! What is it to Alice Walton if she makes $10 billion this year, rather than $20 billion, but her employees can afford to shop in her own store? I'd seriously like to know, where do all of these multi-billions in profits go anyway? How much can Sheldon Adelson, for example, spend before he crumbles to dust? Why do the mega-rich try so hard to get even more mega-rich, while their employees can barely scrape by?

[Excerpt]

Doubling McDonald's Salaries Would Cause Your Big Mac To Cost Just 68¢ More: Study

McDonald's can afford to pay its workers a living wage without sacrificing any of its low menu prices, according to a new study provided to The Huffington Post by a University of Kansas student. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

Walmart Heiress Arrested for DUI

Good night, Alice. Image from Raw Story

She's Alice Walton, bitch! And she can get a "first time" DUI even though it wasn't her first time, and even after having killed a person with her car in the past. It pays to be one of the richest people in the world. As Stupid Monkey Planet--who sent this link to me--said,  "You or me... prison."

[Excerpt]

Walmart heiress spends birthday in jail for DWI

The daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton spent the final hours of her birthday in jail Friday night after being arrested for drunk driving.

Texas Highway Patrol Senior Trooper Gary Rozzell told The Weatherford Democrat that Trooper Jeff Davis stopped Alice Walton on Interstate 20 in a construction zone for a traffic violation. . .

Read more at: The Raw Story

This Just In... The Waters Turned to Blood. (via: Walmart Apocalypse)

Looks like the Seventh Seal opened at Walmart is having an effect... More as the apocalypse develops.

The locals featured in this video do a fucking incredible job of summing it all up... Watch & take heed.

 

The end is near... You Stupid Monkeys.

DHS To Air "Suspicious Activity" Video at Wal-Mart Checkouts

Wait, wait, wait. Don't about eight out of ten Wal-Mart shoppers look suspicious?

[Excerpt]

Watch: Janet Napolitano Tells Walmart Shoppers to Look for 'Suspicious' Activity in Video to Air at Checkout Counter



If you see something suspicious in the parking lot or in the store, say something immediately. Report suspicious activity to your local police or sheriff. If you need help, ask a Walmart manager for assistance," says Janet Napolitano in a new DHS video. . .
 
Read more at: TowleRoad


And if you don't believe me: People of Wal-Mart

Stupid Walmart Lobotomonkeys Fulfill Prophecy $4:88!

Posted by Stupid Monkey Planet

Prophecy $4:88: And Jesus commanded... Thou shall go forth & cast plastic toylike vain images of myself, my disciples, some pigs, a lamb, a shepherd & so on & so forth... Distribute them to the monkeys at the market for a minimal charge, like Four Dollars and Eighty-eight cents. Give thine dirty money to me.

Thanks to the Lobotomonkeys of Walmart. Scientifically known as Walmartius Greedius Jesius Lobotomosimian.

JESUS H. CHRIST ON A POGO STICK... Aisle 13.

At least now their wacky pricing scheme makes sense... biblical references.
More about this rare species of monkey, the Lobotomonkey. Coming soon...