Black Friday protests at Walmart

A splinter organization launched by the United Food and Commercial Workers union is launching a series of protests and walkouts at Walmarts across the country today, to protest the dire working conditions at Walmart.  All I have to say is, good luck with that.  I am deeply sympathetic with the many who object to the business practices of Walmart, but speaking as one who happens to work for a big box myself, these companies have made thwarting union movements into an art form.  This movement will almost certainly be crushed like a gnat by Walmart, and all it will do is make the lives of the workers who choose to participate in this even worse than they already are. 

Last year, Target had something similar happen in Valley Stream, a town in Nassau Country, not that far from the city.  The same union that is organizing the Black Friday Walmart protests, the United Food and Commercial Workers union, organized a union drive amongst Target employees in Valley Stream.  They did make significant progress, to the point where there was a formal vote on whether the store would be able to be unionized.  The vote failed, amongst accusations of intimidation by Target and threats that the store would close.  One employee that I know of was terminated who was instrumental in trying to get the union into Target.  Later, a judge ordered a new election due to proven corporate misconduct.  Target responded by closing the Valley Stream store for "renovations". 

I do recall reading somewhere that closing a Target store for renovations is pretty unprecedented; any remodeling that is done is usually done when the store is closed at night, while it stays open during the day.  Who knows if the store will even reopen at all?  This is just one example of the lengths that big-box corporations will go to avoid unionization in their stores.  I do not think the near-term prognosis for unions is good.  Since America's manufacturing base is pretty much dead, they are trying to find a foothold in the service sector and that is immensely difficult due to the very strong push back by the owners in that sector. 

Marijuana Legalized in Two States

In a story that was probably missed by everybody (including news outlets) because of the bigger presidential election, two states (Washington and Colorado) approved measures, voted by the people, that would allow the use of marijuana, not just for medical use, but for recreational as well. 

I wonder how long it will take the federal government to crack down on this? 

You Get to See Me in the Flesh, But Do you Want To?

Hurricane Sandy ravaged my area last week.  Some people are suffering more than others.  I never lost electric, but lost cable and internet for a few days.  Some people were not so lucky.  At the moment, we are experiencing gas shortages.  Only one gas station (as of around an hour ago) was selling gas in the immediate vicinity of where I live, with a long line.  I went out to see what was going on, and recorded some impromptu footage with my Playstation Vita.  I got to see the long line that was winding around the block for gas, and got to talk to a few nice people.  One person wasn't so nice, but it was harmless.  Please pardon my scruffy face and my speech.

Update:  As of a couple of hours ago (around 4 PM), the gas station near where I recorded this did run out, according to the Gas Buddy website.

Cable Down

Spoke a little too soon.  My power never went out, but my cable/internet did on Tuesday.  As luck has it, I was able to link to an open network and am able to post this.  I hope that with this new found connection, I'll be able to post until my internet is back up.  I feel we're getting a sneak preview of the long emergency.  I have seen mile-long lines for gas.  Someone I work with has not had power since Monday. 

Hurricane Sandy

It is Tuesday, 9:30 AM EST in my neck of the woods, and it is a somewhat overcast day, but with more than a hint of sunshine.  Of course, it's very windy, but to be expected.  I had not been keeping up-to-the-date with the hurricane, but from what I understand, today is supposed to be worse than yesterday was, but it doesn't feel like it...yet.  Last night, parts of our gutter and an awning overlooking the porch in our backyard came down, and there is a huge tree limb that is blocking passage through our street.  But, other than that, things are going as they usually have.  Our electric worked like a champ, a few slight outages (the biggest one was for a little under a minute), but otherwise an uneventful night.  I'm sure it's a different story for many others, however. 

Did read an article that was pretty interesting.  There is going to be a pending gap in our weather coverage, thanks to the aging of crucial satellites that provide critical data to our meteorologists and news sources about these hurricanes and storms.  A replacement satellite won't be set into the air until 2017, at the earliest, due to mismanagement, lack of funding and difficulty in launching the replacement.  Yet another example of how our infrastructure has been allowed to go to shit, since nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tax breaks for the rich (excuse me, the "job creators") takes much higher priority in Washington. 

Foolish Consumer Spending Can Be Meaningful

This is one of those times where I'm blogging without a clear direction of where I'm going, or what point I'm trying to make, and I'm hoping that problem is able to rectify itself by the time I'm done.  I happened upon this article in which a self-sufficient blogger is talking about the foster children she has helped raise, and that in many instances, they come from very poor families.  These families are often food-insecure and regularly decide on which of their many bills they will pay for the month, and these decisions can carry heavy consequences, such as phone service being turned off, or even electricity or heat.  But at the same time, there are certain examples of opulence and luxury in these poor families that prevail even in these dire circumstances. 

For example, some of the poor families that this woman has mentioned as having come across, have state-of-the-art cellphones, or give generous gifts to loved ones or throw lavish parties.  Now, those of you who read this will probably condemn these people in the strongest possible terms, and in a lot of ways, I'd usually agree.  However, one of the points this writer makes, and I do agree with her as well, is that our culture places enormous, almost overwhelming demands on people of every class to have these things.  Just as you may condemn them for spending money on a smartphone as opposed to keeping their house stocked with enough food to get their family through the month, if they didn't have a smartphone or a flat-screen, you'd condemn them for being backward and ask, "what kind of person doesn't have a fancy television?"  Definitely a situation in which the person is damned, no matter what they do. 

She makes other good points, and I wholeheartedly recommend the article.  But I wanted to make one more point.  It kind of reminded me of my situation.  I still live at home and do not have enough money to either move out or buy a car.  Being locked out of these two options has basically fucked any chance I have of finding a better job and obtaining the things (I don't mean material by "things") that I always assumed that I would have when I was younger.  I do have a Bachelor's degree and a postsecondary certification, so working at a low-paying service-level job is not what I had in mind at the age of 33, and it has been a very bitter pill to swallow.  But I'm digressing.  The point I wanted to make is that the one thing I do perhaps spend a bit recklessly on is gaming.  I have all the latest consoles, and regularly buy games.  Now, I don't buy the latest, 50-to-60 dollar Call of Duty game, but between buying used games and downloading games off of Xbox Live or Playstation Network, I do spend a good deal. 

And I question myself all the time, "is this the best use of my money?"  I love games, but can't help but feel that I could put my money towards a better purpose, be it by saving or something else.  When I make a particularly big purchase, I will agonize over it for days on end.  But something my mom has said to me a couple of times will make me give in and buy it.  What she has said to me, when I'm agonizing, is "Jeff, why are you working?"  And from what, I understood the gist of that article and what the writer was trying to say.  Yeah, the poor should prioritize having enough food on hand and making sure all the utility bills get paid.  But what some of us would call "bad choices", those choices being things like spending money on liquor or cigarettes or the latest gadget, can be all that stands between someone and the abyss.  A person cannot live on food alone.  In a life without stability and in which you don't know what's coming at you from one day to the next, sometimes that bad choice is the only meaningful thing you have.  We all need our escape.  For me, it's games.  It opens up a world to me that I am unable to experience in any other way. 

Can Our Teachers Spell?

This story comes out of Australia, but I have no doubt that this is true in a lot of the western world, including in the U.S.  Today's teachers are remarkably deficient in both spelling and grammar, according to tests performed by an Australian news program.  Three different generations were tested for spelling and grammar proficiency, and the newer the generation, the lower the average score.  To put the matter in an even starker light, the questions that teachers failed on were ones that your average 7th grader should know.

I'm troubled, but not surprised.  I find spelling and grammar mistakes all the time, that should be fairly easy to avoid, while reading articles online.  But I am by no means perfect.  An astute wordsmith can probably find at least one error with my grammar in this post alone.  But I do try my best to be coherent and to spell properly.  I do feel that today's person is a little too reliant on spell-check.  It's gotten to the point where writing something on my iPod or cell phone will be automatically corrected for me, even if I didn't solicit assistance from the AI.  But I do feel that an even bigger culprit appears to be people's reluctance to read an old-fashioned book.  In this country, people seem to be notoriously averse to reading, and I doubt that feeling changes much even if you go up the educational ladder.  The visual medium (movies, TV, games) has really taken over in a big way for the vast majority of people.  And for those who do read, it's usually some variant of pop-fiction, like Twilight, Harry Potter, or the latest James Patterson novel.  I mean, it's better than not reading at all, but I do feel that the average adult should strive for a deeper reading experience than one that a 7th grader could have no problem with reading. 

For the record, the last few books I've read were "Catcher in the Rye", and I'm about to start "The Berlin Years", a series of short stories about life in pre-WWII Germany, that was listed on the "Times 100" list of the best English-language books written in the 20th century.  But I'd also recently read the 5th installment in the Harry Potter series, so I'm not immune to a harmless, easy read. 

Starbucks (and Other Companies) Not Paying Taxes in UK

There is a furor in the UK over the realization that Starbucks has not paid any taxes in the country despite profits of coffee sales in the UK of over 1 billion pound sterling since 2009.  In addition, the company has only paid 8 million pound sterling in UK tax since starting up in the country in 1998, in the process racking up 3 billion pound sterling in sales. 

Amazon and Facebook are using some of the same kinds of accounting tricks in order to avoid paying UK taxes, routing their incomes in European tax havens such as Ireland and Luxembourg.  As a result, they are also paying little or nothing in taxes to the UK, and yet generating vast sales numbers. 

I know that I'm not in the UK, but if you think that corporations aren't doing the same things here and around the world, you are sorely mistaken.  We have to stop thinking of corporations as "citizens" and "people" and begin to look at them for what they are: psychopathic entities with zero interest in the common good or for serving anyone other than themselves. 

This also puts a huge dent in the argument from some on the conservative side of the fence that bringing jobs back to this country is dependent on cutting taxes even further on these corporations, or as many politicians are calling them, the "job creators".  Corporations are already paying very low taxes around the world, both via the whim of our elected officials and by shady accounting magical tricks, and there is no huge influx of job creation pending.  It is all mere bullshit.

Post-Election Riots

On one of the forums I visit, a user posted a Twitter feed of various users who called for riots if Romney were to win the election.  I'm not trying to be an alarmist, I really think such an event would be very unlikely to happen.  But it did give me something to think about.  After the last election, my views on the meaninglessness and futility of electoral politics became starker than it's ever been.  Mainly, the reason why I gave up and will not vote anymore is for the same reason as many others who don't vote: we don't see a dime's worth of difference between the (paltry) two candidates and their positions on major issues of consequence.  But at the same time, there is a major, clear difference between the two candidates, and the same clear difference existed in the last election.  That is, one candidate is black and the other is white.  And for many people, including some of those who are non-political and usually do not vote, that one difference is all that they need to register and vote. 

While many would say that people becoming inspired enough to want to vote is a good thing, in this circumstance, I feel that it can be very negative and destructive.  While there are people out there who can articulate and voice clear reasons and motives for voting for their respective candidate, I believe that there is an alarming variety of people who stop at the race issue.  They may not say it in public, especially whites for Romney, but they hold that view just the same.  I posted a few months ago about Romney speaking to the NAACP and getting booed numerous times.  That kind of viciousness displayed on the part of the audience showed how many blacks feel about Romney or any white candidate for that matter: if you are white and run against a black candidate, no matter what views you hold, even if we share them, we will oppose you and will not give you the time of day because you do not share the same color as Obama.  Again, very inflammatory and dangerous circumstances exist. 

I found the second tweet particularly of concern. 

The Bubble Bubble

As a denizen of the blogosphere and the web universe in general, few things give me more pleasure than finding a website or blog that casts a different pair of eyes on the events and circumstances that are encircling us.  I happened to find such a site this morning, that was created by an "independent economic analyst" who had also created a website back in 2004 that forecasted a pending stock market crash, which happened a few years later. 

This website is called "The Bubble Bubble" and the analyst, whose name is Jesse Columbo, states his case, which is that our bubble troubles did not end with the housing bubble.  What happened, is that the housing bubble spawned a series of other bubbles, which are coming into their prime now and are poised to pop sooner or later.  There are eight bubbles, according to Columbo, and he gives an acronmym to make it easy to remember "CCC Aches".  "CCC" is the credit rating given to investments that basically means that you're a "junk" investment.  And as many of these bubbles pop, there will be a lot of "aches" and pains involved.  Teehee. 

"CCC Aches" stands for China, Commodities, Canada, Australia, College, Healthcare, Emerging Markets, and Social media.  There is an in-depth piece written for each bubble by Columbo, and I look forward to reading them. 

Gas Now Being Stolen From Pumps in California

In what seems to have been at least a somewhat elaborate heist, over $4,500 worth of gas was stolen from one gas station in California.  Due to refinery fires and pipeline problems, California has the highest gas prices in the country, by at least 50 cents.  But things aren't appearing too peachy nationwide either.  In my neck of the woods (Long Island, New York), gas prices are back in the $4 range.  I wonder how long it will be before people go from planning schemes to steal gas, to just plain sticking a gun in the clerk's face and saying "fill up on Tank 5". 

Also, I wanted to point out the last paragraph of the article:  "Analysts predict that relief is in sight and prices will bottom out near $3.50 a gallon by Thanksgiving, which is one of the busiest times for traveling."  I'm still a little awestruck at the subtle manipulation that has been taking place over the past few years.  Not too long ago, gas prices were much cheaper than they are today.  But now, if you happen to pay for gas, and it's less than $4 a gallon, then you've likely been conditioned to think that gas prices aren't that bad and that you're getting "relief".  In the meantime, still a lot more money in your wallet is being utilized to fill up your car than it used to be. 

Big Brother Obama

I will keep the commentary light today, as this article from Zero Hedge goes quite into detail and you should really check that out.  I just wanted to include a few graphs that I found on Zero Hedge, which highlight the vast increase in state surveillance under the Obama administration.  In the modern age, when we think of state surveillance, many of us think of Dubya and the Patriot Act, and for good reason.  However, on this issue, Obama is even worse than Dubya could have hoped to have been, as state surveillance has skyrocketed under Obama.

But no one on the left or the moderate Democrat side will call Obama out on this.  This is why, as ultimately meaningless as it is, that I'd prefer a Republican in office.  At least then, people pay attention when things such as this, a dramatic escalation in state security, occur.

Also, Pen Register means the interception of outgoing data, and Trap and Trace is the interception of incoming data.

A Worldwide Bacon Shortage? Say It Ain't So

I had previously posted something about the drought in the midwest causing higher feed prices for cattle, and farmers having to make some hard choices.  Now, it has spread to pigs as well.  Pig feed is made using maize and soya plants, which are also failing due to droughts around the world.  So, the price of pig feed is rising as well, and this could result in higher prices for pork-based products, such as bacon, if not shortages.

I have cut back on my bacon consumption, and when I make eggs, I usually use turkey bacon instead.  It's a lot easier to clean afterwards, as turkey bacon doesn't leave behind the grease that regular bacon does, and I don't mind the taste.  But there's still nothing like bacon though, and I don't think I can live without the occasional BLT sandwich.  I do think we've gotten out of hand with our passion towards bacon, so a shortage may not be such a bad thing.  People put the shit in everything nowadays, from cakes to ice cream sundaes.

Revolution

As many of you probably know, there is a new television series on that deals with the ramifications and aftereffects of a fictional scenario in which the electricity goes out in the United States.  It's called Revolution and it's on Mondays at 10 on NBC.  You can get the pilot episode free off iTunes or off NBC's website.

Eh, I wasn't expecting to get my socks blown off, and they weren't.  It was okay, but then again, post-apocalyptic is one of my favorite subgenres, so the show would have to be monumentally awful for me to stop watching.  It has all the inconsistencies, plotholes and cliches you'd expect from a major production, so I won't bother to list most of them.  Although, everyone does seem well fed; there are even still fat people.  And there still seems to be plenty of Revlon and Cover Girl to go around.  On the other hand, the production values were pretty top-notch, and I thought they did a good job with the decaying buildings and structures (like Wrigley Field).  Kinda reminded me of that History Channel special from a few years back, "Life After People".

The one thing I really didn't care for, overall, is the jumping ahead 15 years into the future, after the power goes out.  The show could have been more of an exhilarating mind-fuck if it dealt with the aftereffects of the power going out, like in the excellent novel One Second After.  I'm sure there'll be flashbacks, but I imagine the tone of them will be pretty mild, it is network TV after all.  From what I've read, a lot of people think that it will be cancelled, but I really don't think so.  NBC is totally seizing the momentum of stuff like The Hunger Games, and it showed while I was watching the pilot.  The teenagers seem like they're going to be a key part of the show, and while that's a bad thing from my perspective, it will probably draw in a lot of those viewers.

Maybe it'll become another Jericho, that was another doomer-type show from a few years ago.  I remember that I had stopped watching that one four episodes in, it just didn't do anything for me, and then there was that huge effort from its fans to save the show, so I gave it another try, and I found that the show really picked up in quality after those first four or five episodes.

Now on Technorati

In order to give my blog some distinction, and to hopefully get a few more visitors, I registered my blog with the website Technorati, which is an internet search engine for blogs.  I was a little naive, and thought that by just having the blog, it'd pop up on Technorati just like it does with Google.  But no, I had to put in what is called a claim in order for the blog to register on the site.  There is a whole system under which my blog will hopefully gain what is called "authority", and will hopefully result in a higher flow of traffic to the site.  This is, first and foremost, a project for me, I like to read on things that interest me and give my insights, and whoever else reads it is just gravy.  But I always value feedback, and would really like to see a more active comments section.

Anyway, these things are for the near-future.

Assault on an American Embassy on the 9/11 Anniversary

This is really bad for a lot of reasons.  The Egyptian Islamic extremists were protesting over some film that is somewhere out there, that was supposedly produced in America, that lampoons and ridicules the Prophet Mohammed.  Any depiction of Mohammed, whether good or bad, is considered a sacriliege by Muslims.  Anyway, the timing was horrible, having taken place on the 9/11 anniversary.  I'm sure a lot of Americans are seeing the footage and are thinking that the protesters are celebating the attack and spitting in America's eye.  They even went so far as to take the American flag, which was flying at half-mast, down.

(To get off the track of what I was talking about for just a moment, something that always makes me laugh about when any religious group or "values"-based organization protests or boycotts something, usually some form of art or media, for something that they find objectionable, is that beforehand, most people did not even know the artform existed until the organization or group called attention to it.  And afterwards, people will start to seek the movie or TV show out just to see what all the fuss was about.  So, in that respect, these organizations are their own worst enemy.)

A consulate in Libya was also burned and an American diplomat was killed, also in protest of this film that I've never heard of (there are supposedly clips on Youtube).  Although nowhere near the scale of the takeover of the Iran embassy in 1979, this is still a reflection of our waning power abroad.  I thought that we had Marines guarding our embassies.  What does it say that we can't even keep an embassy secure, when we insist on maintaining a global empire?

And finally, something more to piss me off.  In light of those events, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo released this statement, condemning "the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims, as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions."  So you have a roving band of these fanatical nutjobs who storm an American embassy, desecrate the American flag on September 11th, and kill a diplomat, all because of a stupid movie, and it's the people making this movie, who are to blame?  Seriously, this is political correctness at its worst.  And, BTW, offending believers of religions and hurting their precious feelings is a freedom protected by our First Amendment.  Eh, gotta go work out some of this aggression at the gym.  Hurting their "religious feelings", good grief.  

Saudi Arabia to Become Oil Importer by 2030

Citigroup estimates that Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter of oil in the world, will become a net oil importer by the year 2030.  My simple question to Citigroup is, where does the largest oil exporter get their oil from when the time comes?  They'll probably tell us that by then, the U.S. will be back to being the prime oil exporter due to our oil shale plays in North Dakota, New York and other places.  I'm going to go out on a limb and call "bullshit", but I guess we'll see what happens.

The article also points out that Saudi Arabia's per capita oil consumption is higher than many other industrialized nations, including our own.  Part of the reason for this is that the kingdom subsidizes its domestic supplies, meaning that their population pays far less than market value.  I have pointed this out before, but read up on the export-land model, it will truly open your eyes on this facet of peak oil.

Technorati

I am in the process of submitting this blog to the blog search engine, Technorati.  I am obligated to provide a claim code on this blog page, and that code is JCD5CEGEQW52.  Sorry, this is only a test. 

The Cost of Curing a Scorpion Bite: $83,000

When it comes to a story like this, words fail me, although they come by the bucketful.  Hopefully, the bad press will force the hospital to back off and be a bit more reasonable, but I have my doubts.  What an evil country to have to live in.  To quote something that is said from time to time in Louis CK's show, "Louie", "what about Obama?"  Indeed.

$100/bl. Oil: The Death Knell for Industrial Societies?

I'm sure I've talked about this at least once since I started this blog, but it always bears repeating: when the price of a barrel of oil reaches a certain point, such as $100, the economy begins to stagger and loses whatever momentum it had.  The really bad news is that when the crash happened back in '08, the economy was overheating from the effects of the real estate bubble.  But this time, the economy is already in a severely weakened state and people are already hurting.  If oil keeps climbing until the economy as a whole faces a similar crisis to '08, I believe that it will dawn on more people that there will be no recovery, that the way things have been for the past 5 years will be, as they call it, the "new normal" with things only deteroiating over time.  My theory, is that the economy will weaken due to high oil prices, and so, oil prices will go down for a time.  But, as things improve and there is talk of an economic "recovery", oil will slowly shoot back up, until we find ourselves in the same situation, where we're struggling to maintain economic growth while the lifeblood of industrial society becomes more and more valuable.  In the meantime, everyday living will become more tenuous and strained.

I have discussed this with people over the years, and have met my share of naysayers, but I still believe the economic crash back in 2008 had a lot to do with the rising costs of oil.  Yes, the shenangians and the illegal activities on Wall Street played a key part as well, but the oil situation at that time does not seem to have been given its due in media or elsewhere.