I spent a good part of my day yesterday standing outside my local grocery store asking people to donate one or two cans of food to my local food bank in conjunction with the National Association of Letter Carriers‘ nation-wide food drive. (Bless their hearts.)
Old ladies, students and people who didn’t look like they had all that much went into the store and came out with a can or two. One kid — I swear, he couldn’t have been older than 19 –giddily handed me a whole bag of food. He was amazing. You should have seen his smile.
Thank you!
But what sticks with me tonight is a woman who drove up to the door with her husband at the wheel of their Mercedes-Benz station wagon. A car like this:
Another day, another Urban Outfitters controversy. The Anti-Defamation League is none too thrilled over this shirt, which they feel too closely resembles the Star of David that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust. The company who made the shirt denied it has anything to do with Holocaust imagery and the shirt is no longer available on the Urban Outfitters website.
So neither the company who made the shirt or anyone — anyone! — at Urban Outfitters saw any resemblance to the Star of David Jews were required to wear in Nazi Germany?
$1,000 for a camera? Someone, anyone, please, is QVC’s audience as a whole in the bracket of those who can afford to spend that kind of money on that kind of thing?
I don’t think so.
Heck. I wouldn’t pay that much either. I looked at a camera the other day that was going for something like $84, and I nixed it.
It’s just sad. Sad that ten days from now good, well intentioned good people will open their credit card statements and wonder WHAT THE HELL DID I DO? QVC, on the other hand, will smile all the way to the bank.
After enjoying a few drinks, some people go dancing. Others order food. And for some, it’s time to shop online.
“I have my account linked to my phone, so it’s really easy,” said Tiffany Whitten, of Dayton, Ohio, whose most recent tipsy purchase made on her smartphone — a phone cover — arrived from Amazon much to her surprise. “I was drunk and I bought it, and I forgot about it, and it showed up in the mail, and I was really excited.”
[...]
“Post-bar, inhibitions can be impacted, and that can cause shopping, and hopefully healthy impulse buying,” said Andy Page, the president of Gilt Groupe, an online retailer that is adding more sales starting at 9 p.m. to respond to high traffic then — perhaps some of it by shoppers under the influence.
On eBay, the busiest time of day is from 6:30 to 10:30 in each time zone. Asked if drinking might be a factor, Steve Yankovich, vice president for mobile for eBay, said, “Absolutely.” He added: “I mean, if you think about what most people do when they get home from work in the evening, it’s decompression time. The consumer’s in a good mood.”
[...]
At QVC, the television shopping channel, traffic and viewers rise around noon, then quiet down until after 7 p.m. Then items like cosmetics and accessories sell briskly. “Call them girl treats — they seem to attract a really strong following once you get past dinnertime,” said Doug Rose, senior vice president for multichannel programming and marketing for the company. “You can probably come to your own conclusion as to what’s motivating her.”
Take a look at QVC after oh, say, 9:00 p.m. Chances are they’re hawking rings that sell for over $200.00 that are so gaudy I can’t imagine anyone actually wearing them. It’s sad.
Nothing sadder than watching people in a Walmart store tear each other apart so they can buy cheap s**t made in China:
This video was taken at the Walmart in Porter Ranch, CA on November 24th, 2011 during the store’s Black Friday sales.
What you’re seeing is a clip taken of a group of shoppers ripping and tearing at each other and a kiosk to get their hands on discounted Xbox 360 games. During the mayhem, one woman thought she was going to be robbed, so she pulled out her pepper spray and blasted the crowd. From my understanding another girl was shot directly in the face with the spray.
You can see the Security guards escorting the girl in a white shirt away from the area at the end of the video.
I turned the TV on this morning intending to head to my local channel to catch the weather. I don’t know which channel the TV was when I turned it off yesterday but the first shot I saw was an aerial view of a shopping mall in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The anchor was excitedly noting that the parking lot was packed. And yes, there, before my eyes were acres and acres of pavement and parked cars. Woohoo!
Then I began to wonder whether the New York Stock Exchange was going to be open today so I turned to CNBC. They were live inside a mall. It was packed too. Another woohoo!
I finally landed on my local channel for that weather report but it struck me that the media seems happy and relieved that that unfortunately placed, pesky orphan of a holiday — Thanksgiving — is finally out of the way and it can concentrate on the real business of life here in these United States of America – “consumers” (God I hate being called that) buying stuff!
Now that so many cities have banned camping in parks or near city halls in response to the Occupy movement, it’s going to be very interesting indeed to see how people like Christine Orta of Tampa, Florida are treated:
Christine Orta of Tampa is ready to take advantage of big Black Friday deals at her local Best Buy. She’s so ready, in fact, that she started camping out in a tent in front of the store on Wednesday, a full nine days before the deals will be offered, NBC affiliate Tampa Bay Online reports (h/t The Consumerist).
But Orta’s not alone in her quest for discounts, she’s camping with three other families who plan to share resources while awaiting the biggest shopping day of the year.
So it’s OK for people to camp out when they’re being a consumer, like Ms. Orta or these people who camped outside an Apple store in New York City to buy an iPod:
Image: ContactMusic.com
But when people are protesting the corporatocracy, it isn’t.
I’d say that’s a telling example of where our priorities lie.
Are these guys ever going to be charged? With something? Anything? I mean, now they’re bring Europe down.
Yesterday – Jefferson County, Alabama filed bankruptcy – and became the latest victim of the high crimes on Wall Street. The decision made by Jefferson county to file bankruptcy represents the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in American history.
In a twisted scheme of corruption and financial manipulation – mega banks JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs allegedly paid off elected officials to invest in junk bonds to help finance a new sewer system. But when the junk investments went bust – so too did Jefferson County – running out of money.
If JPMorganChase and Goldman Sachs are people, this is where I want to see them:
I steal a piece of pizza and that’s where I am. These guys bring down the world’s economy and heck, they’re probably merrily making money off of that too.
I hadn’t heard of “shadow work” until today, when I read this article, though I’ve done plenty of it without knowing it had a name, and so have you.
So, what is “shadow work?”
Photo: Flickr via Bluesman 854
Examples abound, helping drive unemployment rates. Airports now have self-service check-in kiosks that allow travelers to perform the jobs of ticket agents. Travel agents once unearthed, perused and compared fares, deals and hotel rates. Shadow-working travelers now do all of this themselves on their computer screens. Medical patients are now better informed than ever — as a result of hours of online shadow work. In 1998, the Internal Revenue Service estimated that taxpayers spent six billion hours per year on “tax compliance activities.” That’s serious shadow work, the equivalent of three million full-time jobs.
Once upon a time, retail stores had employees who were not cashiers but roamed the floor, assisting customers. Go into a Wal-Mart or Target or Staples and find someone to help you locate and choose a product. Good luck. You’re on your own, left to wander the aisles in search of an unoccupied staff person. (Meanwhile, you might stumble on and purchase some item you hadn’t planned on buying.) Here, it’s not technology, but a business tactic that cuts payroll expenses by trimming the service provided to customers — and prolongs the time those customers spend rambling around inside the store. Regardless, the result is still more shadow work, as customers take on the job that retail salespeople once did.
Shadow work isn’t always unpaid; sometimes it shows up at one’s salaried job in the form of new tasks covertly added to one’s responsibilities. Not long ago, human resources departments kept track of employees’ vacation, personal and sick days. In many organizations, employees now enter their own data into absence management software.
The American corporatocracy has surreptitiously conned us into doing things for it that it used to do for us. And, far as I can tell (hello!), they aren’t reducing what they charge us to compensate for that.
So they win again and we go along with the program like dumb drones.
Welcome to a new week of doing that (me included).
I’m in the market for a throw to spread out on my couch so when Mr. Al (pictured above) lies on top of the back cushions (yep, that’s what he does) they stay as clean as possible.
So I’m looking around today for the nicest looking but cheapest throw I can find and I come across this “Kitty Throw” at The Company Store. Check it out:
Photo: TheCompanyStore.com
This is a “throw?” They’ve got to be kidding. It looks like a doily or a place mat. It looks like a piece of burlap with an applique slapped on it and, get this, they’re selling it for $40! I think I could make it for about $3.
Geez Louise.
OccupyWallStreet and stop corporations from ripping us off is all I can say.
This would be our Tweet of the Day re NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg who’s worth an estimated 18.1 BILLION.
Got that?
$18+ Billion. That’s with a B.
I’m off tomorrow, volunteering at my local food bank. When I’m there, I think about how the people who come through would love to have an extra $30 much less $18 billion.
Ed Schultz will broadcast his show live tonight from Zuccotti “Liberty” Park in NYC, ground zero for the OccupyWallStreet (OWS) movement.
The guy finally seems to be getting it, or not.
I sent him a tweet a few days ago suggesting that he get his ass down there because OWS is the new Wisconsin — which he was so supportive of — but he came off as timid and confused when he talked about it on his radio show, whining (like the wingers): What are their demands?
Hopefully now, now that Dylan Ratigan has been bold and super-supportive — Schultz ah, either cares about it or he wants to grab the ratings. My guess is he wants to grab the ratings but whatever. Coverage is good.
Rachel Maddow said it all just now as to what the 2012 election is going to be about. Forget the 99ers. Forget jobs. Forget education. Forget healthcare. Forget infrastructure.
Thanks to Bush’s Supreme Court and Citizens United, 2012 is all about:
CASHWARFARE.
I’ll put video up as soon as it’s available but ain’t that the truth?
I don’t know about you but I can’t afford to buy my representative. But Bank of America can!
I have never watched a full episode of “Jersey Shore,” but the bits and pieces I have seen are embarrassing to me as an American. The fact that a show featuring an entire cast of dumbed-down airheads was even produced is a sad commentary on the state of our nation. I mean, until the other day, “Snookie,” the “star” of the show, didn’t know Montana was a state.
So I empathize with Abercrombie & Fitch. They are so embarrassed by the show they’re offering to pay cast member Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino not to wear their clothes:
With their quick rise to fame, the cast of MTV reality show “Jersey Shore” has cashed in on a number of endorsement deals, including weight loss supplements, alcohol and bronzer.
But here’s a first. Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is offering to pay Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino not to wear its merchandise.
The New Albany, Ohio company released a statement Tuesday evening titled “A Win-Win Situation,” in which it stated a “deep concern” over the association between Mr. Sorrentino and the brand. A&F offered up a “substantial payment” to Mr. Sorrentino “to wear an alternate brand.”
“We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans,” the statement read.
The company also extended the pay-to-not-play offer to the other Jersey Shore reality stars and said it was “urgently waiting a response.”
This has to be a first in the annals of advertising history. Retailers historically love product placement but apparently they feel much as I do when it comes to “Jersey Shore” bimbos being associated with their brand.
The Dow closed down 264.36 this afternoon and gold is up $11 to $1,656.20.
Gosh. Haven’t we just come down from listening to a month of yelling and screaming about how “the markets” want stability to we’ve gotta get that damn debt ceiling thing resolved. And now there’s this?
According to the Financial Times, the “negotiation process has damaged business confidence and taken attention away from a worsening economy” so I guess Wall Street is waking up, looking around, and not liking what it sees because Washington didn’t actually deal with any of the real issues.
US automobile major Ford will invest $1 billion (Rs.4,000 crore) to manufacture cars and engines at an integrated facility at Sanad in Gujarat, generating 5,000 jobs, the company announced Thursday.
Ford has entered signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government to construct the facility, a company statement said. The construction of both the plants will begin later this year, with the first vehicle and engine scheduled to come off the line in 2014, it added.
How long are people going to buy the tax-breaks-create-jobs meme? It should have died back in 2008 at the beginning of this recession or certainly, in the nearly three years since.
A new IKEA store is set to open in South Denver on Wednesday. That said,
Although IKEA didn’t even allow people to start lining up outside its doors for Wednesday’s grand opening until 9 o’clock this morning, it’s been more than 30 hours since the line effectively started forming in the parking lot across the street.
Last week we saw the Greek people protesting in the streets over the “austerity measures” their government is implementing to, as the media says, “prevent the country from going bankrupt.” From what I gleaned from the coverage over the last several weeks was that the government wasn’t what was in trouble; it was the banks. And today that has been confirmed.
Here is video from BloombergTV of an interview with Jim Rogers, one of the few straight-talkers in the business/financial world. In it he lays it out:
“They’re really bailing out European banks. They’re not bailing out Greece. … Why should hard-working Dutch taxpayers or Finnish taxpayers suddenly wake up one day and get a call from their government saying you’ve got to pay more taxes to bail out some French banks or some German banks who made bad loans? I find that the height of irresponsibility. I find it the height of immorality. It’s a terrible way to run a country, a nation, an economy. It’s not good for Europe. It’s certainly not good for the world.”
The anchor asks whether an “orderly default” is better in the long-run than a short-term bailout.
Of course it is. I mean, go ahead and admit the problem now. Make people take their losses now, in an orderly way as you say. If you do it the other way and you keep building up the debt and the debt gets worse over the next few years, when the market forces you to do it in a disorderly way, that’s called panic. That’s called chaos. And that’s when you have things like 2008 and 2009, when everything collapses around you and there’s not much anybody can do.
Go ahead and do it now while it might be controlled a little bit better.
Watch the whole interview if you’re so inclined. Rogers says the measures being implemented around the world are simply kicking the can down the road and that the world is going to eventually have big problems.
Anyway, it’s no wonder the Greek people are furious. They’re being asked to carry the load while the banks are being rescued, just like what happened here in the U.S.
Don’t forget: A riot is the language of the unheard (MLK).
Brazil has taken a big step towards passing new laws that will loosen restrictions on the amount of Amazon rainforest that farmers can destroy, after its lower house of parliament voted in favour of updating the country’s 46-year-old forest code.
In a move described as “disastrous” by conservationists, the nation’s congress backed a bill relaxing laws on the deforestation of hilltops and the amount of vegetation farmers must preserve. The law also offers partial amnesties for fines levied against landowners who have illegally destroyed tracts of rainforest.
This is a photo of the Amazon rain forest per the article above.
This is a photo of the Amazon rain forest I knew as a kid:
(That river? It’s the Amazon.)
The Brazilians who chop their forests down are people who have no other means of survival, so they turn to logging.
Everyone knows about drunk tweeting and drunk posting and drunk emailing. Now there’s drunk buying.
QVC has perfected it. They wait until late at night and then they dangle hugely expensive items in front of their audience — we’re talkin’ Mothers’ Day eve no less (guilt, guilt, guilt) — and people who had no intention of buying anything say yes to an $800.00 watch:
Folks, did you wake up this morning intending to spend $800.00 — $800.00 — on a watch?
High school kids were standing outside my local grocery store the other day asking people to pick-up simple items poor and homeless people do without. One of the items was disposable razors.
As a food bank volunteer I know razors are coveted but scarce so I forked over six bucks for a 12-pack.
Madison – State officials said Thursday that damage to the marble inside and out the State Capitol would cost an estimated $7.5 million.
Cari Anne Renlund, chief legal counsel for the state Department of Administration, said in Dane County court that estimates of damage to marble includes $6 million to repair damaged marble inside the Capitol, $1 million for damage outside and $500,000 for costs to supervise the damage.
Much of the damage apparently has come from tape used to put up signs and placards at the Capitol.
It was not immediately clear how the estimates were made, though the state is apparently relying on opinions by historical architects, one of whom works for the U.S. Park Service.
One concern is the residue from tape that the state says is causing damage to stone and other surfaces inside the Capitol.
Yo, Governor Walker: Great way to demonize the protesters. Oh, and maybe a great way to enrich your buddies too, heh? Hire them to “clean” the building and pay them $7.5 million?
I’m looking at an 8 oz., $3.99 bottle of Goo Gone:
One or two swipes of this stuff and the goo from the tape will be gone.
You could probably clean the place for a few thousand at the most. I’m willing to bet you could even get volunteers from the community to do it.
News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, was hoping to open a propaganda branch in Canada — called “Sun News TV” (or “Fox North”). It was hoping its crony in Ottawa, winger Prime Minister Stephen Harper, would be successful in overturning a law prohibiting lying on broadcast news. (Imagine that. There is a law in Canada prohibiting lying during newscasts. How civilized.) But, thank goodness there is still some sanity in the world; they were wrong:
As America’s middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades – against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News – fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of the Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canadian regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada’s right-wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.
Canada’s Radio Act requires that “a licenser may not broadcast … any false or misleading news.” The provision has kept Fox News and right-wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage, including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the “Fairness Doctrine” in 1987.
Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the US airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish the anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non-partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper’s proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right-wing network, “Sun TV News” which Canadians call “Fox News North.”
Something like this would never happen in the US because the people in Washington work for the corporations, not for the good of the country but, again, it’s nice to know sanity still exists somewhere in the world.
Congratulations Canada!
Now we wait to see if “Sun News TV” agrees not to lie, something I think it’s incapable of. Telling the truth isn’t part of its consciousness or its business model.
UPDATED 1-12-12 @6:47 p.m. ET: Thanks to all for the lively, well-informed and thought-provoking comments. I would like to say a few things: The person who put this post up is no longer with me. After reading some of what has been said here, I followed the links through and I believe this is where the (inaccurate) assertion that News Corp. owns Sun Newscame from:
The run-up to the licensing of Sun TV News spurred passionate debate about whether Canadians will embrace a news channel modelled on the successful Fox News Channel in the U.S.
Quebecor Media¹s chances of landing a license for the upstart cable channel were dealt a blow when it was revealed that Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and representatives of Quebecor Media had secretly lunched in New York City with Rupert Murdoch and Fox News president Roger Ailes.
That forced Peladeau to disavow any links between Sun TV News and Fox News, as critics claimed, or that Harper¹s conservative government had conspired to bring a Fox-style news channel to Canada.
A link to that article is contained in the post one goes to when one clicks on “they were wrong” in the first paragraph above. I apologize for not having noticed this error at the time this post went up and though, again, I did not compose it or post it, since this is my blog, it is my responsibility.
Second, there is this about Fox broadcasting in Canada now:
In 2003, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected a Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA) application to bring Fox News to Canada because Fox News U.S. and Global Television were planning to create Fox News Canada, a combination of U.S. and Canadian news. However in 2004, after a Fox U.S. executive said there were no plans to create the combined channel, the CRTC approved an application to bring Fox News to Canada.[77]
Fox News Channel is currently offered by Access Communications, Bell TV, Cogeco, Eastlink, Manitoba Telecom Services, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Cable, Shaw Direct and Telus TV. A notable exception is Vidéotron, Canada’s third largest cable company, which has not added Fox News Channel to its lineup.
I don’t know if the individual who put up this post was aware of the above information — I would say not — but though the article says an application was approved to bring Fox News to Canada, despite some quick research, I do not get the impression that Fox News has a channel broadcast from Canada, staffed with Canadians, aimed at Canadians. Far as I can tell, the Fox News seen in Canada is the Fox News produced out of New York City, and it is the same version we see here in the states. So, again, far as I can tell, Fox still hasn’t been granted permission to produce a separate, Canadian-centered news show in Canada.
So, I hope this addresses some of the very good points made on the comment thread. Again, this is my blog and I take full responsibility for the post but prior to today I had no idea it contained such major flaws, primarily the clear implication that News Corp. owns Sun News.
I am the only one posting here as of roughly seven months ago and I insofar as I believe propaganda spread by Fox and the U.S. corporate media is literally a threat to our democracy, I take facts and accuracy dead seriously and I apologize that the flaws in this post weren’t corrected immediately.
