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host · 02-10-2007, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aceventura3

.......I beg to differ. My view of the world allows me to easily do what needs to be done, because I understand the "game". ...... They bend to make "stakeholders" happy. They simply piss off the competition and the unions.

"Everyone hates Walmart", the biggest retailer in the world by a margin of 2 or 3 based on sales. I want to pay that PR price some day, don't you?......

Do you understand, ace.....IMO, you write like someone who doesn't have even a clue.....

Do you really think anything has changed since Smedley Butler's long military career? Do you really think that Wal-Mart provides "low prices" by means of an independent, private, neutral, capitalistic business model?

Quote:

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstra...D9415B848FF1D3
FREE PREVIEW
Gen. Butler Bares 'Fascist Plot' To Seize Government by Force; Says Bond Salesman, as Representative of Wall St. Group, Asked Him to Lead Army of 500,000 in March on Capital -- Those Named Make Angry Denials -- Dickstein Gets Charge. GEN. BUTLER BARES A 'FASCIST PLOT'

November 21, 1934, Wednesday
Page 1, 462 words

DISPLAYING FIRST PARAGRAPH - A plot of Wall Street interests to overthrow President Roosevelt and establish a Fascist dictatorship, backed by a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers and others, was charged by Major Gen. Smedley D. Butler, retired Marine Corps officer, who appeared yesterday before the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities, which began hearings on the charges.

Quote:

http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm
Smedley Butler on Interventionism
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Quote:

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/15/Bu...crats_pr.shtml
By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer
Published February 15, 2006

...... The motivation, advocates say, is to force companies to spend enough on employee health benefits to keep low-wage workers off of Medicaid. Democrats complained that Wal-Mart gets state tax incentives to build more big-box stores, but then has many of its workers without health coverage.

"We should not be subsidizing businesses with your tax dollars, and then they turn around and give us Medicaid patients," said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach, a sponsor of the legislation with Sen. Walter (Skip) Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale.

"This is not antibusiness legislation. This is propeople legislation," said Campbell, a candidate for attorney general.

Bucher said more than 22,000 people who work for the state's 10 largest employers are on Medicaid. She said she got figures from the Department of Children and Families on DCF clients who listed their employers and said they received Medicaid benefits. One of those employers is Miami-Dade County, Bucher said, and the others are Walgreen's, Burger King, Target and Taco Bell.

Business groups attacked the proposal as a "payroll tax" that will do nothing to curtail rising health care costs. A Wal-Mart spokesman said the unions' true objective is not health care coverage but unionizing Wal-Mart's growing work force, which is approaching 100,000 in Florida.

Full-time Wal-Mart employees make an average of $9.85 an hour, the company says.

Quote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...052502162.html
Critics Say Wal-Mart Grows Part-Timers to Cut Benefits

By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006; Page D02

.....A J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. report in January said the company is planning to "right size" its full-time versus part-time mix to improve productivity and reduce store labor costs. According to the report, about 80 percent of employees are full time. The company is seeking to lower that rate to about 60 percent during the next 12 to 18 months, the report said.........

Wal-Mart spokesman Eric Brewer said that by targeting the largest employers in Florida, labor is mobilizing much of the business establishment to fight the proposal.

Brewer said 70,000 Wal-Mart employees signed up for coverage last fall in a companywide expansion drive.

The "Fair Share" plan in Florida is modeled after a similar effort in Maryland that became law over the governor's veto. The Washington Post reported that in the month prior to the Maryland General Assembly's action, two large labor unions donated more than $36,000 to 48 state legislators.

Similar union-backed drives have taken hold in more than 30 other states.

"It's a terrible idea," said Mark Wilson, senior vice president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, adding that most uninsured workers in Florida work for small businesses, not the 10 largest employers........