Going Christmas Shopping?

     Here is a little something to think about this Christmas season as you and your family go out to do some shopping. MSNBC has posted up an Associated Press story that Get a spine, Boycott WalMartshows what happens when you speak your mind in China. One of their citizens co-wrote an ariticle calling for free elections, freedom of religion and free speech. He was thrown in jail without charges and has sat there for a year. His wife has been allowed to see him twice. 
     These are the freedoms that we like to beat our chests about. These are the freedoms our boys are fighting and dying for in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are freedoms we would kill for. 
      If you read the ariticle, you’ll see that the average citizen in China is unaware of what’s happening because of a “news blackout and Internet censorship”. These are a couple more things that Americans would consider repressive if they were happening anywhere but China.
      And why is that? Why do we march off to war in Iraq and then go shopping at WalMart where 80% of the goods on the shelves are “Made in China”? Are we really that morally weak? 
      Yes, I think we are. Think about that when you go Christmas shopping this month. It’s really kind of sickening.

Engineers Strung Up by Thumbs

thumbs up         United Parcel Service is said to be thumbing its nose at the once much acclaimed DIAD IV. While smaller in size and loaded with gizmos, DIAD IV has proven to be a real honker. In a business where time is money and keystrokes are measured in dollars, drivers are fumbling away the company’s profits.
        Problems first began to arise when engineers, more concerned about size than function, put letters and numbers on the same keys and added a “shift” button. “Size is everything,” design engineer Richard Head explained. “I’ve finally proved that smaller is better.”
        But the shift key has proven to be a real boondoggle, with drivers often having to break, stand off to the side and fumble with the keyboard. What was once a smooth delivery routine has turned into a battle of the thumbs, with some drivers even having to void out their previous work and go back and try it again. Communicating with DIAD IV has become a real challenge, drivers often typing lengthy messages only to accidently erase them with a single keystroke. “It’s a nightmare,” one driver recently complained as he threw his DIAD down, “whoever designed this thing ought to be strung up by his thumbs.”
        Apparantly UPS had the same idea. A recent audit of time being wasted using DIAD IV showed that the placement of the button that turns the signature screen around costs the company over a million dollars in lost time every month. It seems that one out of every 20 customers hits the button when they take the DIAD to sign. That causes the driver to take the board back, punch through the screens to return to the signature mode, and hand it back to the signer with the warning, “Don’t touch that button.” Placing the only active button during the signature process in the exact location where everyone holds the board was the last straw for UPS.
        Following in the Chinese tradition of simply executing anyone who causes emabarassment and financial loss, next month UPS will string up the entire engineering department by their thumbs. “It’s fitting,” a UPS spokesman boasted, “the punishment fits the crime.”

Corporatist’s, The Next Step in the Takeover of the World

     With the takeover of NBC, the Corporatist mentality is rising to the top in America again. The huge Corporatist takeover of the world continues through the process of brainwashing on the media airwaves. The television and “news” media has become the new propaganda machine. Today there really is no “news”. With the editorial control, through ownership, of the TV, Cable, and print The last real newsman?outlets, a few people, with huge, agendas have effectively taken over the real politics of our day. 
     Have a conversation with a “ditto head”, somewhere. These people will spout verbatim the spewings of a fat, anti-social, radio head, that makes millions of dollars, and has no clue what it’s like to be a working class person in todays America. He is able to convince these people that the Union they work with is somehow an evil entity that wants to steal their soul. Yet without that union these people wouldn’t have a pot to piss in. If you ever notice, it’s many of these very same “ditto heads”, that have lost their job, or their health insurance, or their pensions in the last 10 years of the takeover. These “ditto heads” are the first people in line at the unemployment office, or the welfare office, with their hands out demanding their rights as an American. The hypocrisy is astounding.
     Ownership has it’s privileges. What better way to change the debate than to broadcast the same lie, over and over and over and over and over and over. You get the idea. If you don’t think it’s a reality, look at Nazi Germany. How did Hitler win the unwavering support of the German people prior to WWII. He controlled the Media, of the time, and used it to convince his people that he was some kind of God. Without the people behind him, he was just some funny looking, skinny guy, with a caterpillar on his lip.
     These Corporatists are not about the American people. Hell Murdoch is an Australian. These, and I use the term loosely, people, are not about the working class. They are not about small business. They are not about American freedom.
     They are about control. They are about money. They are about monopoles. They are about “one” bank. They are about “one” airline. They are about “one” Media outlet. When you have only “one” of anything, you have total control. No radicals, no rebels, nobody doing their own thing. No competition.
     For those of you that have supported the latest batch of politicians in Washington, what I have said is the most obvious. They stood up in front of us, and told us how they were going to return America to the people. How they were going to provide us all with health care. How they were going to get us out of the ridiculous wars we are in. How they were going to bring back “American jobs” to Americans. We believed them, and we voted for them. Now it’s obvious why the big money corporatists give money to both sides. It’s so they can control the debate. 
     Notice how the health care debate has become about the insurance companies, and what they can afford, and what they can provide. Where did the people go in that discussion. The public option was about the people. Look at how many of them have turned their back on the people.
     Notice how the war debate has gone from getting us out of Iraq and Afghanistan to the same old “National Security” crap that Bush handed to us. Look how the debate is now about the Military industrial complex, not the people.
     Notice how the debate about job creation has gone from bringing jobs home, to getting along with China, (who owns us by the way), and creating off shore trade policies. A .01 % decrease in unemployment gives all of the politicians a hard on, when in fact they are just manipulating the numbers to benefit the overall picture. People are still losing their jobs. I loved the way the media presented it as “only 11000 people lost their jobs this month”. Were any of those “11000” you?
     Again it’s all about phony media numbers, and the presentation. It’s about challenging you to get the facts on your own. They have no obligation to tell the truth, as Fox News found out when they were sued for lieing on air. The courts said they have no legal obligation to tell the truth
     
Until the people regain ownership of the airwaves, and the media, this country will remain in the grip of the Corporatist

     So go ahead. Try to start that small business. Go ahead. Try to get medicine for your baby. Go ahead. Try to get a decent paying job. Go ahead. Try to retire in your lifetime. Go ahead. Listen to a Teabagger tell you what is really going on in the world. Go ahead. Keep hiding your head in the sand. 
     They’re coming after your livelihood next! 

    

Option Days, 8-Hour Days and 9.5 Language…Peak Rules

  The rules for 8-hour days, option days and 9.5 grievances change during the peak months of November and December.
        We cannot request Option Days from Thanksgiving through December 25.
         We cannot request an 8-hour day from Thanksgiving through the week of Christmas.
        We do not have 9.5 language during the months of November or December.