Evil corporatistas

[Stetto, man...]

If ever a picture is painted of the absolute ignorance and blind partisanship of the "enthusiastic supporters" in this country, one of the best canvasses to view is modern social media. Being a venue owner for hosting folk and Americana artists has me friending a lot of bug-eyed leftists on fb. One of their favorite "misconceptions" to propagate is the lawless tyranny of corporate America, a favorite target being Walmart. The latest "scam" is how Wally underpays their employees to where said employees are forced onto foodstamps, the profiteer from the welfare program. Yes Galvin, that may even be true, but you and your army of mush heads refuse to take this process to the end of the equation. Follow the money, mr. rocket scientist, and you discover the source of crony capitalism; Yep, gotta be good ol' GWB, right?

In my opinion I'm watching nazi style Jew villainization at its most refined. Politicians, people WE elect to run this nation, not only enable and support this activity, but commit further treason by refusing to set your dumbed-down idiot populace straight. It's also prevalent in foreign issues, immigration, gun control, birth control, etc. etc. etc.

...But even as pathetic and dangerous the stupid can be in this regard, they are, on a very eye-rolling, tongue-choking level, entertaining...

[HiTemp]

Speaking of corruption, apparently the VA must have threatened to cut off all Viagra to the Congress or something. I just read a story where my congress critter, Chairman of the House Veteran's Affairs committee Jeff Miller, has just joined with his equivalent over in the Senate (Bernie Sanders, I - VT) to forge an agreement that would allow the VA to hand out a mere $360 million in bonuses this coming year. They were formerly handing out $400 million a year until the VA scandal hit this past spring and the House voted just a month ago 421-0 (and later the same day 426-0) to strip the VA of ALL bonus money. Miller even said that freeing up the $400 million would cover a lot of the money the VA says it needs to fix the long wait times problems.

So you see, here's the Republicans for you. Big show, turn up the lights, roll cameras, move closer to the stage, we're voting to show you vets and citizens how very seriously we take issue with the VA providing shoddy care and service to our veterans. Okay, now that everyone's seen the show you can all go home and rest assured the Republican party heard you and even got the Dems to take sides with us in fixing everything.

Okay, now that the crowd is out of the building, let's not worry about fixing a damned thing, just get over to the Senate and work something out. Don't take the bonuses away, just whack them down enough so we still have a modicum of cover should anyone shine any light on our back-door deal. "Gee, we still made them lower their bonuses... what's wrong with that? Oh, the $400 million that was supposed to go to fixing the problem... uhhh... well, I think there is a sense that things are moving in such a way that it's very likely that we might possibly expect an outcome next year that would reflect a budget that has great potential to address some, possibly even most of the problems VA has identified in the past as making veteran's health care access more widely available."

Now you see the rabbit, now you don't!

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

I just don't understand the people who hate the govt, they must be radical anarchists or irrational.

[HiTemp]

Corporations are always the fallback source of evil in the world because it's easy for people who have never set up and run their own business (much less a giant corp) to finger point at those who have and - perish the thought - actually turned a profit. Classic have-nots blaming their lack on those who went out and worked to achieve.

That's not to say there are no such things as corrupt corporations or greedy corporations. We already have historical records of corporations who have carelessly polluted land and water just to avoid expenses associated with safer disposal of chemicals. We have an OSHA today because some corporations of yesterday put more emphasis on keeping profits than investing in basic workplace safety to the detriment of people who helped them earn those profits.

But not every corporation is evil just because it is big. Yes, big corporations do tend to remove money out of local economies and make it more difficult for mom-n-pops to compete or even start, but that's the tradeoff a community makes to accept the taxes generated by the property and buildings, the sales tax generated by their sales volume, and the large number of people they tend to employ. It's a trade off, not a rape.

I think that anyone who has ever worked for a corporation sees the frustration caused by governing policies and decisions that can only come from a corporate HQ located far away from the situation to be governed. When major decisions are "corporate" and they try to make one cookie-cutter solution that covers everyone in every situation, it usually fails somewhere and that somewhere becomes the focus of how that policy is unfair or unjust. These are the stories that make the paper and after years of reading them, it's almost reflexive that people think whatever corporations decide, it MUST be with a hidden motive to maximize profits or some executive's bonus at the expense of compensating or treating the worker bee fairly.

How often have I said that when society loses respect for truth, all manner of societal evils are free to take root? This is one of them. No one wants to consider the fact that the new boss of Walmart in the USA is a guy who began his career in retail stocking their shelves. That would tend to destroy the easy template that all corporations are evil because, after all, how did a shelf stocker rise to high corporate position in a greedy, unjust, evil business? Rather than face the possibility that this company might have offered their employee, as a benefit provided at their own expense, opportunities for education, training, etc. that allowed him to rise into positions of greater responsibility, culminating with running Walmart Asia and now Walmart USA. Ahhh, that can't be. Must be that he found some secret way for the company to milk more profit out of something at someone else's expense and they promoted him as a reward for finding new ways for them to rape the landside. It's just laziness and lack of will to actually go find some facts and try to make an honest assessment of truth.

But when truth is whatever anyone defines it as, all one needs to do is think a new definition into existence and Voila! it's now the new truth. It follows the same pattern as global warming, political correctness (hoping two wrongs will make a right), and modern politics. Whatever anyone says, is. At least at that moment. A new truth can always be defined tomorrow if today's definition doesn't work out as planned. Like His Royal Highness drawing a red line in Syria (truth today) and then he didn't draw any line (truth the next day) and then he did draw a line but it was a more figurative, global line (a new truth to fix the old ones that didn't work out).

Back in the day we had a word for these new kinds of truths. It had something to do with what comes out of the south end of a horse.

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Personally I think corporations should have never been seen as a person legally. They are not, they are by definition soulless entities designed to make profit and limit liability of shareholders. They cannot be greedy or evil them selves anymore than the people in them are, they are simply a mechanism. In that they should have no say politically. The people who own and run them do, and can support any form of political action they wish. Which they can, and now use the corporation for the same as well.


However, the demonization of corporations in most cases is simply anti capitalist in basis. There is nothing wrong with a corporation paying less, i.e not paying artificially inflated union scale to remain profitable. Its not evil, its a business model, and if it didn't work, no one would work there. I'm sorry if you are unskilled and uneducated that places like Walmart are the only option now or in the future for you, but that is not Walmarts fault nor resposibility. and where would you be without that option?

of course that's not what they want, they want Walmart employment with a mandated "minimum living wage". We will see how well that "living wage BS works out, I think it will be predictable with Oregon becoming one of the most expensive places to live on average.

[HiTemp]

Besides, who's going to want to stay at Wallys when the SIEU and their minions convince our government to decide that fast food franchises are not distinct from their parent corporations, thus the unions can unionize all of them in one fell swoop rather than having to get them franchise by franchise? They are demanding $15/hr as a minimum wage at the burger joints.

Maybe they should pay that much for some jobs. Personally, I'd like to see the people taking orders at drive-up windows making that much, then there would be some incentive for them to learn how to speak clearly, in English, with no 'bonics. Frankly I'm tired of hearing, "Is there a bird up in the sky?" out of the drive-up speaker and when I look at my wife with that look of confusion on my face, she has to translate "She wants to know what size FRIES you'd like with your sammitch."

I think the only reason the SCOTUS gave personhood to corporations is because of making two fundamental errors in deciding earlier cases, and that painted them into the corner. The had to either reverse themselves or keep the old decision and add personhood status to corporations making political donations. Here.. I'll toss it, you call it. HEADS! Okay, personhood it is.

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

There won't be incentive to act professional (or speak English) when they are guaranteed 15 bucks an hour just to show up. I am thinking we should get rid of the minimum wage and let people find that they have to make an effort to be worth something to an employer.

You are right, its the same thing with Gay marriage, govt got involved to keep this very thing from happening, and now its own laws are going to be used to corrupt and destroy the institution. The only way it will be preserved is get govt out of it, but we will never see them relinquish such power willingly.

[Stetto, man...]

Greedy, unethical, whathaveyou, these corporations large and small are only taking advantage of rules regulations and laws THAT GOVERNMENT PROVIDES. Galvinistas wail and gnash their teeth over it, but hey, it's their Che-reincarnate's Chicago Machine in charge, isn't it? After six years nothing has changed, especially during those first two when the Collective had carte blanc...Does it beg enquiry? Hell no, the Messiah is TRYING, He MEANS WELL...

[HiTemp]

Certainly they take advantage of them... who wouldn't? Where is the homeowner in America who, when filing their income tax, looks at the mortgage interest and real estate taxes they've paid and says, "Naaawww, this is just a loophole. I'm not deducting it, I'll just send that money to Uncle so he can use it in his typical, wise ways." Those deductions are put there legally just as every other "loophole" is put into law and no one of them is any less valid than any other.

As is typical, Congress creates the problem in the first place, then while lamenting the downstream effects of the very laws they made, they condemn it as a problem but never take any ownership of helping to build it. That's how they roll.

It begs a plethora of questions. Why, if we've had so many different pieces of legislation passed to address crime, do we still have crime? Same could be asked about the homeless, hungry, uninsured, whatever. Each time we hear how this or that bill is finally going to put an end to this or be the cure-all for that, but it never is and almost always creates some new, expected but denied effect that leads to us, the citizens, being bitten in the ass.

One example is highway taxes. They tax the hell out of our gasoline supposedly to keep our roads and bridges in good repair. Then they go and mandate that cars get a bazillion miles to the gallon and are SHOCKED to learn that the road tax revenues are plummeting because people aren't using as much gasoline. Wait.. there's supposed to be more cars on the road to make up for that - but every year we mandate more "things" must be in those cars, like certain computer chips or anti-pollutant devices, or simply more plastic to make them light enough to meet mileage standards. Then the cost of the vehicle rises at 18 times the rate of inflation and everyone in Washington and the press is mystified why a population with almost 1/3 of it's work force unemployed isn't dashing out to buy these $40,000 machines. End result: we have to find new ways to tax the citizens because they aren't paying enough.

It isn't stupidity because they know full well what problems they are causing. It's simply calculated risk, just like an insurance company takes when they issue you a policy. Where the insurance company hopes you don't defy the statistical norms, Congress bets you won't connect the dots and if you do, you won't remember that a couple years down the road when they are up for reelection. Is it any wonder why they constantly run around from one crisis to another crisis? They don't want us continuing to dwell on a single crisis because then we'll likely remember how it was born and who conceived it.

One thing if for sure. If Congress was serious about ending anything, it would end. They were serious about their own security when anthrax envelopes began showing up, and you notice that doesn't seem to be much of a problem for them anymore - because they took it seriously and solved it without concern of which PAC liked it or didn't. If they would take on our national problems with the same degree of resolve, they would end. But there's more campaign cash to be made by laying out a crisis in front of our wallets (RNC: If Hillary gets elected she'll confiscate everyone's guns. DNC: If Romney is elected he'll undo civil rights and persecute the LGBTs) in order to pry our hard-earned cash out of us, assuring solutions are at hand if only so-and-so can get into or remain in office.

Exactly how much proof does it take to falsify a claim nowadays?