Tag: Opinion

Wal-Mart lays off employees, possibly union protesters?

This is an interesting headline:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it’s eliminating 2,300 workers at its Sam’s Club division as it reduces the ranks of middle managers in a bid to be more nimble. 

The layoffs, which cut 2 percent of the membership club’s U.S. employee count of about 116,000, mark the largest since 2010 when the Sam’s Club unit laid off 10,000 workers as it moved to outsource food demonstrations at its stores. 

The cuts come as Sam’s Club strives to compete better with Costco Wholesale Corp. and online players like Amazon.com’s Prime membership service. They also follow layoffs announced by several other major retailers in recent weeks that include Macy’s Inc., J.C. Penney and Target Corp. 

Bill Durling, a spokesman at Sam’s Club, says that a little less than half of the cuts were aimed at salaried assistant managers. The cuts are also eliminating some hourly workers. He says that each of the clubs had roughly the same number of workers regardless of how much revenue each store generated. 

“We felt this was the right move to make sure we are positioning ourselves for growing in the future,” said Durling in an interview with The Associated Press. “We are trying to rebalance our resources in the field to make sure we are investing in the clubs that have the higher growth potential and balancing resources across the chain.” 

via Wal-Mart to cut 2,300 workers from Sam’s Club stores – NBC News.com.

I would be willing to bet a shiny dollar bill that the company went around and found out, who, that were employed by the store; was protesting the store for the unions and laid their butts off. Serves them right for doing something so darned stupid, as trying to get a union in a place like Wal-Mart.

Service sector unions are good for one thing and one thing only. Causing hate and discontent among employees and putting a burden on business owners and sometimes employees too. I ought to know, I worked for Meijer’s back in the 1990’s and you talk about an abortion job of a place. You could not do anything without management’s approval and the union’s approval. It was terrible and I was happy the day that I told that crapola of a place, to take that silly minimum wage job and shove it.

I ended up going to a place that paid twice as much and did not have nearly as many problems as Meijer’s did. Needless to say, I was quite happy to get the heck out of that place! In fact, the only reason why I shop at this local Meijer’s here near my house; is that it is the closest place to shop; not because I happen to believe that the place is really that great.

You go in there on a Holiday and shop? You will wait for two freaking hours to get to a register. Why? Because the unions force Meijer’s to pay their employees higher the minimum wage; despite the fact that most of them are dumber than a box of rocks and that they are the slowest bunch of employees; who really do not get in a hurry to do anything at all. Anyhow, the managers will only open like 4 or 5 checkout lanes, instead of opening all of them. Why? Because they know they will have to pay all of them employees, despite their lousy job performance.

If you work in a steel mill or an automotive factory; then yes, have a union. But, if you are working in a service industry, like Meijer’s, Wal-Mart or some other retail or fast foot outlet; do your job, shut the hell up and be glad you got a damn job — and don’t whine about it either or go find a better job! That’s how America works, been that way since I was working and was that way long before I ever started working.

….and that — is all.

 

Obama to announce overhaul to NSA program

This should be really interesting….:

(Reuters) – President Barack Obama will announce on Friday a major overhaul of a controversial National Security Agency program that collects vast amounts of basic telephone call data on foreigners and Americans, a senior Obama administration official said.

In an 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) speech at the Justice Department, Obama will say he is ordering a transition that will significantly change the handling of what is known as the telephone “metadata” program from the way the NSA currently handles it.

Obama’s move is aimed at restoring Americans’ confidence in U.S. intelligence practices and caps months of reviews by the White House in the wake of damaging disclosures about U.S. surveillance tactics from former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden

via Exclusive: Obama to announce overhaul to controversial NSA program | Reuters.

This is the part of President Obama’s job that I would not do, even if they offered me a million dollars a day to do it. Doing the balancing act between national security and privacy is not an easy task. On one hand, you have the people who want to protect America from terrorist attacks; on the other, you have those who want to keep the privacy of Americans safe.

The article goes on to say what Obama has in store. I highly recommend that you go read it. Because needless to say; this is going to make many people, on both sides of the argument, very unhappy.

 

Obama’s alarming similarities to Bush

This is a very interesting article and it is written fairly, I believe:

Claiming a mandate he never had, the newly reelected president foisted a bold agenda upon Congress and the public, then watched it collapse within months—a victim of scandal, cynical opponents, and his own hubris. One despairing adviser declared, “This is the end of the presidency.”

That was George W. Bush in 2005. Or was it Barack Obama this past year? Reading Peter Baker’s extraordinary account of the Bush-Cheney era, Days of Fire, I found a striking number of parallels between Bush’s fifth year in office and the atrocious first 12 months of President Obama’s second term.

My takeaway: Obama needs to shatter the cycle of dysfunction (his and history’s) or risk leaving office like Bush, unpopular and relatively unaccomplished.

via ‘This Is the End of the Presidency’ – NationalJournal.com.

I suggest you go give that one a read. It is very interesting; and almost eerie to read.

Now the partisans on both sides will object to the piece and that is to be expected. But those of us, who do not suffer from such illness, will read it and agree.

What astounds me is that the American people actually allowed themselves to be fooled by the President who promised a change of business with his new Presidency. Only to find out that it was the same old Washington business as usual. For that, America is a less great Country. Sad how our Nation has become a people of useful idiots.

 

John Podhoretz gets exposed for the intolerant Trotskyite that he truly is

This is great;  a Trotskyite Zionist goes for a debate; and the minute he sees that he is losing the debate — he storms off the stage, takes his marbles and goes home.

I am referring to the greatest Trotskyite, Zionist, Neoconservative of them all — John Podhoretz.

See here, here, here and here.

Money quote:

Bottom line: I’d had a long day and I didn’t see the point in spending more of it getting booed and shushed. So I left. So sue me.

If only we could sue you and your family for all the trillions of dollars — and the 4000+ lives that were  wasted in the Iraq War —- which you and your satanic Father were cheerleaders for, after 9/11. Actually, I would very much like to see criminal charges filed against you and few of your Trotskyite friends as well. However, as we realists know; that will never happened to a protected class as yourself.

You want to know what got wrong with Conservatism? You want to know why the GOP is in the shape that it is in? Look no further than this man here and his idiotic Trotskyite magazine that he runs. They are the true enemies of America; they are the ones who put us in the war that almost broke this Nation and ruined its standing in the world.

It is a pity that there is not true justice in this Nation of ours; otherwise, this man and his friends would be sitting in jail cells.

 

Video: Charles Krauthammer gets it right

This comes via The Corner:

http://youtu.be/WmvILtDMDgM

He is, of course, talking about the budget deal. The budget deal that everyone else hates. I say l let ’em hate it. The corner says this:

“The only choice of those who would reject the deal would be to go up until the deadline of January 15th,” he said on Special Report, “and the only leverage Republicans would have would be to shut down the government.

“We tried that in October. It was a disaster,” Krauthammer said, arguing that that the news stories in January would have been about such a shutdown, not Obamacare’s continuing problems. Rejecting the spending deal, he said, would have been “mindless.”

Krauthammer praised the GOP for taking the deal, lauding them for preserving 70 percent of the sequester cuts over the next two years and ending the “endless extension of unemployment benefits.”

I said the same thing back when the shutdown was happening; it was a bad idea. Why punish those who are just going to work everyday? It was a stupid idea. Ted Cruz did not have a plan, once he took the House Republicans into the ditch.  This compromise was a smart idea, and it will buy the Republicans some time, till after the election. Hopefully, the new ones coming in will play the right political game and not the wrong one again.

 

 

BudgetGate 2013

I apologize for a lack of output today. I just didn’t see anything worth wasting time over. I did post one thing; But nothing political.

Anyhow, Senate leaders hashed out a budget deal; and the Dems hate it, although some do like it; and not shockingly, the right is not to happy with it either. Which means, it might just be a decent deal. Believe it or not, Rep. John Boehner makes a valid point here: (H/T HotAir.com)

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The point he makes at 1:30 in this video is legit; and we all know whom that little remark is aimed at! (Ted Cruz) Boehner has a point; Cruz took the House into the ditch and did not have a plan to come out of the ditch at all. Which is not good politics. I’ve written all about this before, so I am not going to repeat all that again! 🙄

Either way, the roundup on this huge story over at Memeoradum is huge and worth a read.

If I were the US, I would tell Afghanistan’s Karzai, “Sign the agreement or we leave in 48 hours!”

Next year?!?! How about in 48 hours?

The Story:

KABUL, Afghanistan –The White House threatened to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan next year, after President Hamid Karzai refused to sign a new bilateral security agreement.

Over the weekend, officials in Afghanistan endorsed a security deal that would keep United Stations troops in the nation beyond next year, but President Hamid Karzai denied the request. He wants the U.S. to bring more security to the country first. NBC’s Richard Engel reports.

The two countries remain deadlocked over future military involvement after an unsuccessful working dinner between Ambassador Susan Rice and Karzai at his palace in Kabul on Monday night.

In a statement, the White House said Karzai had outlined new conditions for a deal “and indicated he is not prepared to sign the BSA promptly.”

“Ambassador Rice reiterated that, without a prompt signature, the U.S. would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no U.S. or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan,” the statement said.

via US to Afghanistan’s Karzai: Sign security deal or we’ll pull out all troops next year – World News.

If I were the President and Susan Rice, I would simply tell Karzai that either he signs the agreement or our forces would be out of Afghanistan in 48 hours. However, before that, I would quite forcefully remind Karzai that the only reason he and his predecessor were even elected to power; was because the United States of America overran the Taliban by Military force and forced them to allow a democratically elected Government.

I would also tell him this; If we leave in 48 hours and your Government gets overran by the Taliban again and you happen to find yourselves under the Islāmic extremists again — do not call us, because the United States will NOT be coming back here at all. The United States came to Afghanistan to get Osama Bin Laden after 9/11 and in the process of that, defeated the Taliban. We got our man and our being here is now moot. Now, this idiot is playing hardball; well, I would play it right back; and tell him that either he signs or we leave — and he can deal with the fallout, we did our job as far as this writer is concerned. We really do not need to be there; but for the sake of a few kids, who we don’t want to see living under extreme Islāmic rule.

Next year… 🙄 What is that going to do? Buy Karzai some time? I think it is time that we got tough with Karzai and tell him, “Either get with the program or we’re done with you and this Nation.”

Just my opinion.

Me and Sen. Carl Levin are on the same wavelength!

Which is pretty scary, considering he is a Democrat and I am a paleoconservative.

In a previous posting I wrote:

Not only that; what happens if the Democrats lose the majority in both houses of Congress? Then, the Republicans will use that relaxed power to stack the courts with people who, of course, the Democratswill not like and then you would have state Christian statism in a horrible form; and you have to know the Democrats will not like that one bit. Now, if I were a partisan type, I would think this would be awesome. However, I believe in divided Government and I happen to believe that one party acts as a check and balance to the other. It keeps one party from holding a monopoly on Government.

Take it away Senator Levin:

But Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, one of three Democrats who voted against diluting the filibuster, noted that past Democratic minorities have used the procedure to block GOP moves to limit abortion rights and repeal the estate tax.

He said he feared that a future Senate majority would weaken filibusters against legislation and “down the road, the hard-won protections and benefits for our people’s health and welfare will be lost.”

This is because that Senator Levin is from the old school Democratic Party and he happens to know a little about the game. Also, unlike some of the other Democrats; Levin is looking down the road, past 2014 and 2016, when the Democrats might actually lose the majority in both houses, due to the Obama Administration’s failures —- and he sees the Republicans abusing this little change in the rules to the high heavens.

Another reason too, is because he is not running for reelection. This is because of the stupidity, like this, up on the hill. The Parties have become too divided; and the partisan rancour has become too ugly. Levin comes from the old school Democratic Party and he sees the future, this is why he is getting out of it. Which is a smart move in this paleoconservative writers opinion.

Kudos to Senator Levin for having the guts to call a spade for what it truly is; a massive blunder by the Senate Democrats.

An FYI on the Beast and Don Fallon

I happen to be reading over at Breitbart.com and I happened to notice an article about Politico.com hiring a writer from that magazine the beast.

Well, I happen to have a bit of experience with that magazine called the Beast, and I happen to know a little something about the owner. If you’ll please click here you can read all about it.

Now some of you would probably say “what about you?” I have been more abundantly clear that my issues with the Zionism movement are strictly religious and political. I am NOT a Jew hater and Paul Fallon and his crew from The Beast are definitely Jew haters.

I just thought I’d let everyone know about that. And I find it very shocking that Politico would even hire someone like that.