The World is a Vulgar Place, Deal. With. It.

Here's the thing. I swear. Deal with it.

If you don't like it then don't read my blog. Period.

Don't email me and tell me (TELL ME?) to remove certain words that offend your Victorian sensibilities. Seriously. Just don't.

By the way, how did you get my email address anyway? I have gone well out of my way to remove contact information from this blog because I do not want to be contacted on it.

I will continue to write as I choose here and you can choose to read it or fucking well not.

I. Simply. Do. Not. FUCKING. Care.

Fighting Back with Technology

Scan and know where the money goes.

Got signed up and rolling with Buycott tonight.

Mind. Blown.

First some good news. Godiva Chocolates are clear of conflicts with regards to the Koch Brothers and GMO Labeling. Eat Godiva Chocolates happily and with a clean conscience (though perhaps they conflict on other campaigns, I don't know).

Bad news that I kinda, sorta already knew: Coca-Cola is on the No side. $1.75 million to fight GMO labeling? Tsk, mother fucking, tsk. 

I hate spending my money where it is going to be used to fight against things I believe in. Now I don't have to.

Now, I will grant that the contact information on the site is, ummm, mysterious, there are no named personages on the site. The WhoIs info is informative,http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=buycott.com. Based in LA, protected name on the registration. They clearly do not want to be known who they are and that isn't confidence inspiring. And there aren't sources for the data which isn't especially comforting either, okay, alot of cool and a few question marks. Kind of big question marks. 

Some, but not all, of which were resolved by reading this Forbes article about Darcy Burner her idea that she demonstrated and other developers have since run with.

But, in the end, the concept is sound and the resulting information /appears/ reliable but maybe should be verified randomly a few times just to make sure, ya know? The app is going to be put to use in my house for sure and I expect my cash will start going more towards places I can be happier supporting.

I'm going to send some feedback to the contact email on the site, feedback@buycott.com and ask for some transparency in the operation. Data sources at the very least. Not that I don't trust them but I don't trust them. Nothing personal. I just like sources I can look over myself or have verified by other third parties without potentially vested and nefarious interests.

Thanks to +Ole Olson for bringing the app to my attention in the first place. Much appreciated as this is one of those things that will change my day to day in a better way and that, my friends, is okay.

Further product updates:
Hansen's is clean for my campaigns. Krusteaz is clean, Jif is evil, Planters is clean. Doritos are the very epitome of evil but you already knew that regardless of any campaigns. And, most shockingly, Santa Cruz Natural Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade is on the no fly list because they contributed some $485,000 to fight GMO labeling. Seriously? By the way, Santa Cruz, Natural Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade is made in Chico, not Santa Cruz. So, yeah. They'll not be getting my money anymore.

Life Is NOT a Videogame and You Are NOT a Hero

Orange City Walmart customer shoots at suspected shoplifter and hits his car along with two other cars and, thankfully, no children.

Okay, so here's the thing, shoplifting ISN'T a shootable offense. And this dude with the gun wasn't a cop, wasn't in danger and had truly no business drawing and firing his weapon. Which is why he's been arrested and charged with a bunch of crimes when he thought he was going to get a medal and the key to the city and hot chicks.

Um no.

A couple of things, one, Jose Martinez is not going to get away with this. Joe Martinez might. Joe Martin would be alot more likely to get away with this but Jose Martinez? Yeah, fuck no. Sorry but this is the current state of affairs in the US. A shitbag like George Zimmerman hunts down and murders a 17 year old black kid and gets bail, a black mother shot into the air to defend her home from armed intruders injuring no one and faces up to 20 years behind bars? Why? Because George Zimmerman has a judge father and is half white. The mother? Sorry, she's black and poor and how dare she try to protect herself and her children from armed intruders and not even hurting anyone in the process.

And the shoplifter happened to be a black man. The crux of the issue is that Jose is asserting that the shoplifter was driving his car towards him in an attempt to harm him. The reality, from eyewitnesses (and Walmart shoppers, dumbasses) is that Jose chased after the shoplifter's car shooting his gun wildly and even tried to open the passenger side door while the car was moving. Jose Martinez did everything possible to put his own dumb self in danger. Why? Because he had a gun and was just stiff with anticipation to use it to fight crime or some bullshit machismo fucktard mentality.

This is the natural result of insane gun laws like Stand Your Ground. This is the same law used as a (weak ass bullshit) defense of some asshole fat white dude not putting up with some kids playing their music too loud in their car at a stoplight so he just opens fire on them and kills one. Seriously? A kid's life is worth that little to you that you can't put up with some bad music for a minute or two?

And yes, I do believe I will be cross-posting this to my What Not To Do blog as well.

The Price is Just Too Damned High

I should note, this isn't mine. I came across it on G+ and strongly agree with the tone and sentiment. The use of fuck you is intentional though, it is a punctuation to the complaints and attempts to show the impact of handing money over to Walmart.

I find what monster corporations like Walmart are doing is far, far worse than delicate sensibilities about the use of a word that probably gets said several billion times a day. Seriously, I probably said fuck twenty times before leaving the house this morning.

The only thing I'd change on this is the use of your when it should be you're in the second line. And maybe a period or exclamation point at the end.

And I may start referring to Walmart as China Direct from now on.

Shoplifting is NOT a Capital Crime Walmart LP Goons!

Man dies after being placed in choke hold by Walmart security

Yes, theft is wrong and illegal. What the man was doing was illegal and he should have been arrested and charged with that crime. Instead, the Walmart security guard and two workers held him down in a choke hold until he was dead.

They killed him for stealing two DVD players. His life was worth less than two shitty DVD players (because we know the higher end models are kept locked up).

The two employees are on paid leave (which blows my mind that Walmart actually HAS paid leave) and the security guard was let go.

I'm not saying these three people set up to kill the alleged shoplifter. I am saying that there's a reason the cops are the ones who do the arresting, they have been trained and are supposed to know when and when NOT to use lethal force.

These three people killed someone for trying to steal two DVD players. Yes, he was stealing shit he didn't really need because, let's face it, DVD players aren't food and he wasn't stealing to feed his family, he was stealing because he couldn't afford gifts which is its own whole other issue that Walmart also has quite a bit of culpability in as well.

In the end, this man died for stealing two DVD players and that is a damned shame. No word on the family he left behind who will be even worse off without him. It is a terrible sign of the decline of our nation when DVD players are held more valuable than man's life.

Black Friday Strike is a Go!

Walmart Black Friday Strike Being Organized Online For Stores Across U.S.

Want to support your fellow Americans in their struggle against the largest company on earth that makes mad profit by forcing as many employees under the poverty line so they can receive public assistance. Think about that for a moment, our taxes are going to help pay Walmart's employees because they are UNWILLING to do so themselves.

They are more concerned with pocketing a few extra dollars than actually creating a sustainable system where their employees earn enough money to survive and possibly even thrive on.

I've been boycotting Walmart for as long as I can remember but please consider shopping elsewhere (if you MUST shop) on Black Friday. Stand with your fellow Americans against the corporations (who aren't people no matter what Mitt Romney tries to assert).

Friday is also known as Buy Nothing Day. I strongly encourage you to consider joining that movement. You will be less frazzled from fighting crowds of bargain hunting crazies.

Walmart Crosses The Line

Walmart moves 'Black Friday' to 8 p.m. Thanksgiving night

Walmart is trying to force their merchant holiday over Thanksgiving. Walmart is trying to jump the gun that much more and giving up on so-called "Black Friday" altogether and going with "Greedface Thursday" instead.

Just say no.

Say no to Black Friday but absolutely say no to Walmart stealing time from your family celebration and Thanksgiving dinner.

There's a line between okay and not okay and Walmart has crossed that line.

This is NOT OKAY.

Leave Thanksgiving alone, let people spend the entire day and night with their families before you get your greedy mitts on their wallets again.

Happy 50th Birthday, Wal-Mart: A Former Employee Hates You

Happy 50th Walmart, a Former Employee Hates You which I'd say could actually read Most Former Employees Hate You. Nobody likes working at Walmart. It is trading tiny bits of your soul for tiny bits of money, day in, day out and living in the full knowledge that one even slight screw up will very likely cost you your job. But here, here's the newly "released" employee's words:

Well, I'm finally done... I am so glad I will never have to work that god forsaken third shift nightmare of a job at Wal Mart again. I just couldn't take it anymore...I just couldn't waste one more second of my life in that soulless corporate hellhole. There's only one way to go from now on and that's up. I've already been at the bottom of the shit pile...horrible hours, pathetic wages, idiotic ignorant knuckle dragging customers, and asshole incompetent managers. Gonna miss that 10 percent discount though haha

And every time I remember some new injustice perpetrated by this greedy unholy corporate behemoth Im gonna post it on Facebook until I purge its poison out of my soul..one year, eight months, two days and thirty two seconds of my life I can't get back working as a corporate whore for the devil LOL Who in God's name expects people to work EVERY weekend and EVERY holiday because the managers are too damn lazy and uncaring to rotate the schedule..."Well we'll just make everybody on third shift work every weekend to eliminate the hassle of changing the schedule every week" Sad but true...stupid assholes

And you MUST work 12 hours on Black Friday..Which in the greedy corporate soulless world of Wal Mart starts THURSDAY Thanksgiving DAY at 7 p.m. Screw your families and holiday dinner, people..there's MONEY to make. Oh but Wal mart employees have off Christmas Day"...oh excuse me I didn't know Christmas Day ended at 10 p.m.

How do they plan where they put there stores? It probably goes something like this: Let's take a crew of desperate people looking for work in a shitty economy in a depressed area, build a big boxy ugly store and sell cheap merchandise manufactured in China and from other poor nations with a child labor force and sell the crap for cheaper than other stores because we dont' pay our employees a livable wage or adequate benefits and they're pretty much disposable if they complain.

And we don't have time to train them properly and we don't have enough people to stock the crap we sell... so simple things like ROTATING STOCK and disposing of damaged or tainted merchandise so people don't get sick goes by the wayside. If our customers get expired produce and meat and dairy products or broken merchandise and stuff that has had chemicals leaked on them...well BUYER BEWARE!!

And if any of our employees gets injured we bully them into not filing a claim and if they do we fire them.

And if they reports unsafe work practices to OSHA we lie our asses off when the investigators show up and pretend that we're "painting the bulletin boards" so we don't have to post the OSHA report for all employees to see as we are required to do so.

What our customers don't know would curdle their blood...pesticides stored on top of pet food, expired baby formula..mice feces in the bakery along with chewed bags of bread...mice with a carnivorous fondness for beef jerky, leaving their poop behind in the display box after chewing through the bags, and meanwhile customers are buying beef jerky from the SAME BOX!!

And by the way if you are buying HOLIDAY candy hate to tell you that's been sitting in our dirty warehouse/backroom since summer for MANY months! ENJOY!!! The mice sure did... Just dust off the feces, get rid of the chewed bags and sell them suckers!!!

If you're ever in our store when the late night bi-weekly cleaning of the meat department cases takes place you'll learn first hand what a rotting corpse probably smells like..it should be done more often but no one wants to do it and the managers don't really give a shit to enforce it...this filthy cesspole catch basin of liquid blood scum is lurking about six inches below that package of hamburger meat you're about to buy, Mr and Mrs. Customer. Bon Appetit!!

Incompetence and indifference trickles down from the top management and infects the average worker..for example the person who orders paper towels was on vacation one week so no one thought to order paper towels for the bathrooms...you know, the same bathrooms the employees, the people who handle the FOOD, use too. So employees wash their hands and have to dry them on their dirty work clothes!!!!!! This went on at our store for a week until some upper management asshole FINALLY gave permission for some lower manger to pull paper towels off the shelves and stock the bathrooms. The issue at stake: Wal Mart would be LOSING money by doing that so they balked at it until workers complained.

Wal Mart is all about the almighty dollar, screw the customers and double screw the employees.

I like for example how employees are instructed FIRST to punch in a code if they are being are robbed which sends a call to the police. In fact, uou have to do it in order for the cash drawer to open...gee THAT won't make the guy with a gun in my face at all suspicious or jumpy when he seems me punching a bunch of buttons.

I don't know what your local store is like but where I worked, it was a mix of middle aged people (quite a few women) who have lost their jobs in the recession and took the job when this place opened because there are no real good jobs to be found in [my area], where the poverty rate is high; there were also young people many of them in college or right out of college who couldn't find work elsewhere.

Yeah we had our share of a "lowlife flunkies" but most of them are the customers who make our lives even more hellish. The people I worked with were mostly poor to middle class people who work hard for very little pay and a lot of abuse.

When a coworker left Wal Mart, it felt to me like it must feel when you're prison, when a longtime fellow inmate is released. You feel happy for them but you wish it was you.

Working at Walmart is a serious grind. You can't make enough to get away, you can't move up the ladder since that requires the wholesale loss of your morals, you can't work anywhere else because Walmart has already stomped out any semblance of local competition. Basically, once Walmart comes to your town, you and your town are about to get molested and abused by the retail giant. This isn't conjecture, it is fact.

WalMart Can Choose Good Over Evil

To demonstrate that though this blog is called WalMart is Pure Evil, not everything that WalMart does is totally evil, here's a story about WalMart severing ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

And I learned that WalMart protects a square foot of land for every square foot of their stores (seems like a slightly crappy trade off but hey, it's a step in the right direction).

Wal-Mart’s decision to drop ALEC makes sense in the context of their successful “Acres for America” program.  Since 2005, Wal-Mart has partnered with the National Fish and Wildlife Federation in an effort to conserve an acre of land for every one occupied by a Wal-Mart facility.  As of January 2012, the project has protected 687,000 acres.

I must say that I am heartened by the speed with which these fake agencies are abandoned by large corporations once their misdeeds and twisted agendas become public. Yes, ALEC was funded for a long time and helped push many bits of legislation that are festering boils on the American landscape (Stand Your Ground laws being just one of their "successes") notwithstanding their attempts to force the instruction of climate change denial in our school systems.

The cynic in me thinks this was as much of band wagon jumping on by WalMart as it is any sign of a moral backbone in the retail behemoth. But hey, good news is good news either way. And the further emasculation and destruction of ALEC is a cause for celebration.

Walmart Loses in Court, Again

Walmart to pay $4.8 million

The Labor Department on Tuesday ordered Wal-Mart to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages to thousands of employees who were denied overtime charges, the latest in a string of embarrassments for the company over its business practices. 

The department said its decision affects roughly 4,500 vision-center managers and asset-protection coordinators who worked at Wal-Mart between 2004 and 2007. Wal-Mart had considered those employees exempt from federal regulations requiring overtime pay but reclassified them in 2007. The government and the retailer have been negotiating the amount owed since then.

The US Department of Labor press release brings the smackdown.

Walmart will continue to exploit their workers until these cases are the norm and not the exception. Walmart is about profit, pure and simple, and if they have to trample some employee rights or break a few laws then they are going to do it and then pay the fine if they happen to get caught.