CNN Hits a GRAND SLAM!

[swivel]

Holy motherfucking shit-fire.

A story just popped up on CNN that I could not believe was real. It was like a CNN satire on Saturday Night Live... only it wasn't.

The story shows a woman in a wheelchair who has a scrambled brain. Her husband is lovingly brushing her teeth. We get the gratuitous shot of her crushed minivan and a pic of the massive rig that knocked the sense out of her, permanently.

At the bottom of the screen is the tag line: Walmart sues Family. Oh shit. Here it comes. Was the truck a Walmart truck? Jesus, CNN hates Walmart more than they hate the war in Iraq. I'm already cringing.

Let's see... oh, wait... the lady worked at Walmart! This is going to be bad. Wait. She had MEDICAL COVERAGE via Walmart?! And they paid for all of her medical expenses? Over $400,000?! Goddamn, I thought Walmart didn't insure their customers, and never paid.

Hold on... looks like the family settled with the trucking company. Got enough money from the company to pay their own medical expenses. And the Walmart insurance explicitly requires any settled money to be paid back in the event of a settlement. So, this family wants to get paid twice, and Walmart wants to uphold their contract.

And CNN clearly wants us to hate Walmart. Whenever they mention the name, they show a store with a slow zoom, complete with the black fuzzy circle around the lens, like a sniper is taking aim. Holy shit this is fucking crazy.

Just when you think CNN has riled up their fascist viewers to a frenzy, they cut to a shot of the family's youngest son, who was in Iraq for only two weeks before he was killed in action. Then they cut to the brain-dead mom who lets out a Shaivo-Like moan, and the reporter credits this to the memory of their lost boy.

Final shot is one of the Supreme Court, shot with almost nothing but pillars, so it can represent any DC building... like maybe the White House.

Well-Done CNN. You just nudged the country a tad more to the left.

[Rotten Apple]

Oh jeez. This is common practice with all insurance companies...even Medicaid.

I worked in products liability in a law firm a while back. We represented some big names. One was Wyeth Ayerst and we were in the middle of the big Norplant hoopla.

These poverty stricken women who ended up paralyzed or permanently handicapped from the strokes they suffered while on Norplant would be so destitute to make ends meet that they would borrow from their attorneys against any future settlement...with interest of course. They had staggering medical bills.

Once the settlement was reached, the attorneys took their cut along with all borrowed monies plus interest (became millionaires) and then Medicaid would get reimbursed for any medical expenses they paid out. there would be almost nothing left from the settlement for the women.

In the end, you'd have these women, who were still broke, if not further in debt with continuing medical bills and no way to support their families.

It's disgusting.

Trying to single out Wal-mart for this is ridiculous.

[Athena]

My little sister was recently in a car accident. My father works for Boeing and she is still covered under that insurance, but Boeing required a signature on a similar document, stating that they would pay for care, but anything recovered via settlement was owed to Boeing.

My little sister was smart, though, and waited to see if she could even file suit successfully before signing the document.

This type of clause does not tend to be small print. It's a pretty significant aspect of the agreement. I can't find sympathy for those who fail to comprehend the legal documents they sign.

CNN can say what they want about Wal-Mart, but the company's a fucking machine and will prevail. I mean, really...What impact will CNN possible have? Now, a few Prius-driving hippies will be even less inclined to shop there...as if they did to begin with. Woo.

[swivel]

CNN can say what they want about Wal-Mart, but the company's a fucking machine and will prevail. I mean, really...What impact will CNN possible have? Now, a few Prius-driving hippies will be even less inclined to shop there...as if they did to begin with. Woo.

I wish I could believe they don't have any effect. But they do. The labor companies have convinced their wing of our political machine to drag Walmart through the mud. CNN, the media extension of the same political wing goes along for the ride. As a result, many of the neighborhoods that need a Walmart the most are being denied by local politicians.

My father lives outside of Pueblo, Colorado. Recently, a few of the local politicians found out that Walmart was going to place a major distribution center in Pueblo. They watch CNN enough to know that Walmart is evil, and began fighting against the move. This was all behind-doors, Walmart had not yet announced the plans publicly, and the politicians didn't make their own moves public.

Walmart finally said, "Fine", and made a huge announcement for the center to open in Wyoming. In the announcement, they mentioned the scrapped plan for Pueblo. The citizens of Pueblo were OUTRAGED. The area is desperate for jobs and revenue. The center would have brought TONS of both. Nobody asked them what they wanted. They put together a small group to go to Walmart HQ and plead their case. Walmart was sympathetic, but told them that they were represented in a different manner.

And so a community is fucked up the ass by bozos that watch CNN and are brainwashed into doing what is good for the unions, at the expense of the rest of society.

[Pirelli Jones]

Yeah every community needs more dead-end, minimum wage jobs to keep the derelicts in crack and whiskey.

If Wal-Mart had a model that contributed to the local communities wouldn't they find more acceptance?

I'm certainly not supporting CNN, I think all mainstream news outlets have become servants of the bourgeoisie, but I believe the same thing about mainstream religious outlets too.

Chicago just went through this drill, many alderman oppose bringing in an out-of-state retailer that won't provide wages commiserate to the local economy. We can't sanction impoverishing citizens just enough that they don't qualify for aid.

[Athena]

I wish I could believe they don't have any effect. But they do. The labor companies have convinced their wing of our political machine to drag Walmart through the mud. CNN, the media extension of the same political wing goes along for the ride. As a result, many of the neighborhoods that need a Walmart the most are being denied by local politicians.



Indeed. I failed to consider it from that angle.

[Morbid]

Yeah every community needs more dead-end, minimum wage jobs to keep the derelicts in crack and whiskey.

Opposed to the Mom and Pops who hire 5 people each, usually have terrible benefits (if any at all), pay the same wages with NO ladder at all and charge 5 times more for their merchandise?

[swivel]

Yeah every community needs more dead-end, minimum wage jobs to keep the derelicts in crack and whiskey.

Dead end?


And Wal-Mart promotes from within: You can work your way up from the store floor to management ranks. GM and the UAW, in contrast, insist on a sharp line between labor and management, with all employees working full time and getting full benefits. That made sense when almost all workers were men supporting families. But it is a poor fit with a labor market in which many workers are women, teenagers, or retirees seeking extra income.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060109/9barone.htm

What does the Labor Union's colon smell like?

[Athena]

Opposed to the Mom and Pops who hire 5 people each, usually have terrible benefits (if any at all), pay the same wages with NO ladder at all and charge 5 times more for their merchandise?

...and even this is assuming that mom & pop shops exist there to be crushed by Wal-Mart to begin with. There are still voids to be filled in this country. In any given community, Wal-Mart could make the difference between some jobs and no jobs at all.

[swivel]

...and even this is assuming that mom & pop shops exist there to be crushed by Wal-Mart to begin with. There are still voids to be filled in this country. In any given community, Wal-Mart could make the difference between some jobs and no jobs at all.

Mom and Pop joints were dying before Walmart came along. Just like small-scale manufacturing was phasing out by the turn of the 20th century in favor of large-scale manufacturing. And small-scale farming was being phased out during the 20th century in favor of large-scale farmers. Retail has been going through the same shift for just as long, with enclosed malls and "big box" retailers taking over.

Economies of scale have always been the trend. Even going from each of us gathering our own foods, flintknapping our own spearheads, making our own clothes, etc... to having someone in the tribe specialize in each, and trading with each other the products of our labor. IT MAKES NO SENSE TO GO BACK TO THE OLD WAYS. It is wasteful, harms the environment, keeps people poor and miserable, and does not provide the leisure time in which art and culture flourish. Nor the extremes of specialization in which science can cure disease, and discover truths about our universe.

Those who look back wistfully are fucking retards. We should create a reservation for them in Nevada, and erect a very tall fence. They can only come back out when they can admit that progress is PROGRESS. And their "progressive" ways were regressive lunacy.

I will support Walmart with every fiber of my being until another company comes along that is bigger than Walmart, can undersell Walmart, and contribute to our society and economy even more than Walmart does.

[Pirelli Jones]

I will support Walmart with every fiber of my being until another company comes along that is bigger than Walmart, can undersell Walmart, and contribute to our society and economy even more than Walmart does.

Of course you will, you've been media-astized to believe its a good thing. I like to consider the source from time to time. My corporate website says we're pursuing a better tomorrow for society, but I"ll let you in on a little secret, that's just to receive dollars from suckers. The real mission is to enhance share value.

Anyone can paint with a broad brush and say all mom-n-pops are this way and support it with single cases, you'll never prove it. I know way too many mom-n-pops that pay a living wage and provide benny's for their employees.

As for the one Wal-Mart the arguments against are as flourishing as the mainstream articles like the one you linked that extol on their greatness.


Zenith Management Consulting found 80% to 85% of the items Wal-Mart sells are more expensive than they are at other retailers.


The National Bureau of Economic Research showed that Wal-Mart's presence in a community reduced the residents' wages by 5%.


That's in addition to the all the unpleasant externalities that follow Wal-Mart into town, like gender discrimination, unsafe Chinese products, traffic, pollution, child labor violations, and so on.


Dube (2005) and Neumark (2005), in papers reviewed in Wrestling With Wal-Mart, present strong evidence that Wal-Mart's expansion has driven down earnings for workers not just in competing retailers, but across stores throughout the region of Wal-Mart expansion.

Note that's worker earnings, not shareholder earnings.


The real pressures on family income are coming from items that can't be bought at Wal-Mart. These products and services can, however, be bought with higher wages.

And if you're thinking that progress involves paying less for your Wal-Mart items consider what the underfunded workforce they breed is doing to our national economy

The idea that encouraging Wal-Mart's expansion constitutes a progressive endeavor that will provide big benefits to poor Americans in the future is misguided; truly progressive policy should focus on the big-ticket items in most families' budget—health care, housing, and education.

But its a capitalist society and you're welcome to save money at the cost of your peers on this ride around the sun. To claim that you're progressing the community forward is disingenious though, you'll pay more for everything else in order to keep getting cheap, anti-freeze laced toothpaste from China.

Link to people that disagree (http://blog.wakeupwalmart.com/ufcw/real_facts/index.html)

I'm sorry I just came to bash CNN, but I can't listen to the beatification of Wal-Mart without offering counter-points.

[swivel]

Almost all anti-Walmart arguments fall into two categories, both of which are equally vapid:

First, you have the category that puts the worker ahead of the consumer. This is the unfair wage, no compensation, standard union fare. The idea here is to subsidize a minority of the population at the expense of the majority. All this, despite the fact that people work at Walmart because they choose to, not because they are forced to.

Second, you have the set of arguments that are true for all companies, but are blamed soley on Walmart since they are the largest non-govt. employer. These are the descrimination suits, the corrupt managers, the dangerous Chinese toys, the degredation of inner-cities, etc...

I'm having a hard time finding anything new in your post. It all falls in these two categories. Here's something for us to all remember: Working sucks. Lots of people work at Walmart. We can assume that working at Walmart sucks at least as bad as working anywhere else. That's why we call it work.


If Walmart had balls, I would suck them until my throat got itchy. I love, love, love Walmart. I wish I didn't have to, but there are too many fanatics out there hating on Walmart for me to leave the issue alone. If they could drop the Union cause and get the fuck off Walmart's case, I could stop wearing my Walmart T-Shirts to local coffee shops and sticking up for them.

[swivel]

Pirelli, I also think its funny that you criticize the "source" from time to time, but all of your tripe comes from websites devoted to bashing Wal-Mart. You should stick to respected business journals and websites.

And the Zenith study is an obvious smear-piece. It is loaded with gems like, "Communities are openly hostile to Wal-Mart coming into the community, which obviously proves that Wal-Mart is bad for the community". It is absolute garbage, and there is no indication in the study of methodology. Every price comparison of standardized baskets of goods comes out in Wal-Mart's favor, usually by more than 10%, sometimes by as much as 20%.

You have been brainwashed. Question your sources.

[Pirelli Jones]

Pirelli, I also think its funny that you criticize the "source" from time to time, but all of your tripe comes from websites devoted to bashing Wal-Mart. You should stick to respected business journals and websites.

You have been brainwashed. Question your sources.

No, it all came from one website with the mission to smear Wal-Mart. Just as your source panders to the capitalist view. Too hard to believe there are two sides to an issue?

Its supposed to be funny, I thought this whole thread was a fucking joke.

[swivel]

Its supposed to be funny, I thought this whole thread was a fucking joke.

That hurts my feelings. ALL of my threads are serious, and are intended to educate, not amuse.

Are you on my friends list? I want you off my friends list. :p

[Pirelli Jones]

Are you on my friends list? I want you off my friends list. :p

No you're the cold-hearted bastard that didn't friend the new kid, that's why I oppose all your points! :cool:

[brokenandtwisted]

Oh, Wal-Mart haters unite! Actually in my opinion CNN is one of the worst news broadcasting corporations out there...talk about instilling bullshit in the general populace...I should find stats. Yes, let me find stats on CNN.

[I am Legend]

i adressed my issues concerning the wal mart situation in another topic, but basically it boils down to this.

if you are anti-wal mart you are an idiot who does not have a clue.:cool:

[CPL CHUD]

I think I've said this before, but anywhere I can go and get a corndog and my hair cut gets thumbs up approval from me.

[brokenandtwisted]

i adressed my issues concerning the wal mart situation in another topic, but basically it boils down to this.

if you are anti-wal mart you are an idiot who does not have a clue.:cool:

I'm only anti-Wal-Mart for the silliest of reasons...I fucking HATE their parking lots. It's like a God damn zoo. The Wal-Mart greeter is always a retired war vet where I go, and he doesn't even greet me...he stands there with his oxygen tank and winks slyly at every female under the age of fifty. Another thing is that Wal-Mart has everything, but when I go...it has nothing I WANT. I also think it's very much monopolizing the market...and most importantly it doesn't sell quality literature. So fuck Wal-Mart.

[Athena]

I think I've said this before, but anywhere I can go and get a corndog and my hair cut gets thumbs up approval from me.

You can get your hair cut at Wal-Mart? Crazy.


I'm not anti Wal-Mart...I'm pro-Target. :p

[swivel]

I'm only anti-Wal-Mart for the silliest of reasons...I fucking HATE their parking lots. It's like a God damn zoo. The Wal-Mart greeter is always a retired war vet where I go, and he doesn't even greet me...he stands there with his oxygen tank and winks slyly at every female under the age of fifty. Another thing is that Wal-Mart has everything, but when I go...it has nothing I WANT. I also think it's very much monopolizing the market...and most importantly it doesn't sell quality literature. So fuck Wal-Mart.

470 posts without a single groan!?!

I'm sorry... but that just won't do. :D

[Athena]

The strangest variety of my posts appeal to you, Pirelli. I'm glad you engage, on occasion. It would be absolutely impossible to determine your political leanings based on Thanks alone. :p

[Pirelli Jones]

I'm against political leanings because of how they treat immigrants.

I thank anyone that makes me smile.

I'm just disillusioned at the moment, I came to this thread to bash CNN. I don't even have a personal beef with Wal-Mart other than the parking lots, which were mentioned.

[swivel]

I'm against political leanings because of how they treat immigrants.

And how do "political leanings" treat immigrants?