Tag Archives: Wal-Mart

Outside money fueling charter school amendment referendum

Why does Alice Walton want, to the tune of $250,000, for Atlanta to be able to force charter schools on local areas that don't want them?

Wayne Washington wrote for the AJC 14 September 2012, Outside money pours into Georgia for charter amendment fight,

Out-of-state money is fueling the campaign of a group trying to convince Georgia voters to change the state constitution so more charter schools can be approved.

Families for Better Public Schools has raised $486,750, campaign disclosure forms show. About 96 percent of that money has come from donors outside of Georgia.

Donors include Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, politically well-connected law firms and for-profit companies that are operating charter schools in Georgia.

Here's the Georgia campaign finance report for Families for Better Public Schools, which shows Alice Walton of Bentonville AR in for $250,000, K12 Inc. of Herndon VA in for $100,000, Charter Schools USA of Ft. Lauderdale FL in for $50,000, also J.C. Huizenga and National Heritage Academies, both of Grand Rapids MI, each in for $25,000. That's $450,000 from those five biggest donors, all out of state.

What about opposition money; where's it coming from?

A coalition of groups opposing the amendment, Vote Smart, has raised $80,951, mostly from traditional school officials like teachers, principals and superintendents who say more charter schools and more state money for them would threaten the funding of already cash-strapped traditional public schools.

So we have big out-of-state money funding demolishing our public schools, and public school people spending some of what little money they have defending them. I know which side I choose. Which side are you on?

Do we want to turn our public schools into private corporate fiefdoms? If not, vote No on the charter school amendment in November.

-jsq

How long until solar beats gas?

We’ve heard even German coal importers say solar beats coal. How long until clean solar beats dirty natural gas fracking?

Southern Company has already cut energy production from coal in half, from 70 or 80% to 35%. Unfortunately, SO did that mostly by shifting to natural gas. Natural gas produced through “a revolution in shale gas”, commonly known as fracking. Do we want to trade dirty water for clean air?

Unlike Johnson & Johnson and Dell (and Coke and Pepsi and Amazon and and more than a dozen more, including even Wal-Mart), the Southern Company has not cut ties with ALEC and its pro-fracking and anti-solar campaign. Why is the Southern Company betting on a dirty horse?

How long until SO CEO Thomas A. Fanning’s “one day” when renewable energy becomes economical? Sooner than his prediction of next decade, as in two years ago solar crossed nuclear, wind is already at parity with nuclear, and even Southern Company realizes coal doesn’t beat anything anymore.

How long before solar beats natural gas, relegating gas to much-reduced use as a backup for sun and wind power, as John Blackburn already projected in March 2010 can happen in North Carolina?

How long will it take for the sun and the wind, with a little water and even less natural gas, to power the world? How long? Not long.

Because the arc of the solar Moore’s Law is long, but it bends down for price per watt, while the price of fracking, no matter the quakes and dirty water for ever, does not.

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ALEC loses 8 more, including Wal-Mart

Even Wal-Mart ditches ALEC! What about the Southern Company?

ALEC Exposed is keeping a list of Corporations Which Have Cut Ties to ALEC, and since the ten we last counted, eight more have jumped the sinking lobbying ship: Blue Cross Blue Shield, YUM! Brands, Procter & Gamble, Kaplan, Scantron, Amazon, Medtronic, and Wal-Mart. That’s right, even Wal-Mart. Jason Easley wrote for Politicus USA yesterday, Wal-Mart Dumps ALEC and Outs Them as Un-American,

In a statement, Wal-Mart representative Maggie Sans wrote, “Previously, we expressed our concerns about ALEC’s decision to weigh in on issues that stray from its core mission ‘to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets…We feel that the divide between these activities and our purpose as a business has become too wide. To that end, we are suspending our membership in ALEC.”

Wal-Mart claimed that ALEC was no longer as interested in Jeffersonian free market principles as they were other partisan political issues. Two of those unnamed political issues are most certainly voter ID and stand your ground laws.

When even Wal-Mart complains that ALEC isn’t “free market” enough, Wal-Mart, which Continue reading →

Former Wal-Mart Department Managers Telling their stories —George Boston Rhynes

Received 5 December 2011. -jsq
Just another Wal-Mart Fired Untrained Department Manager. This is an initial introduction to a much bigger story of truth that cannot and will not be hidden forever! Nor will Wal-Mart Workers here in American continue to be mistreated and ignored as if we were in the Republic of China or in some other third world nation. Galatians 6:7, Saint Luke 4:18……
George’s introduction: Former Wal-Mart Department Managers Tell All at a Valdosta Diner!

And an interview: One of several Former Wal-Mart Department Managers Telling their stories of Truth:


Video by George Boston Rhynes for bostonbgr on YouTube and K.V.C.I.

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The Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs in public safety net use by low-paid employees

Interesting study from California whose results probably also apply to Georgia, showing that Wal-Mart pays about a third less than other retail companies, so little that Wal-Mart employees tend to use food stamps and public medical assistance and housing to stay afloat, which thus “creates a hidden cost to the state’s taxpayers.”

Arindrajit Dube and Ken Jacobs wrote for UC Berkeley Labor Center, August 2004, Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs: Use of Safety Net Programs by Wal-Mart Workers in California. According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center:

This widely publicized report finds Wal-Mart’s wage and health benefits packages for its California workers to be below average as compared to the overall retail sector in California. The authors also find a greater reliance upon public assistance programs among Wal-Mart workers as compared to other California retail workers. Finally, the authors estimate the additional costs to taxpayers of “Wal-Martization”—the adoption of Wal-Mart’s wage and health benefits standards by retailers throughout California.
Here is an extract from the study: Continue reading →

Why is Georgia an “At Will To Work State?” —George Rhynes

Received Sunday. -jsq
TO: Georgia General Assembly Members (Respectively)

All Georgia Elected Officials, Internet, blog and Beyond.


Wal-Mart workers marching in Bentonville, Arkansas, 12 October 2011
Video by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I.

Why is the State of Georgia still an “At Will To Work State?” Wherein, a Georgia worker can be terminated from their job for “good cause, bad cause or for no cause at all. And Georgia Employers are not required to provide workers with a reason for being terminated.

As a Retired United States Armed Forces Military Veteran; I was a victim of a wrongful termination. Yet, after 3 1/2 years, 30 letters, 30 You Tube Videos, 34 pages of documented proof to the President/Board of Directors with documented proof from a former employee to the company president but no response from the company.

What is the Georgia General Assembly or any other

Continue reading →

Wal-Mart Workers Need Help Now From American Government Elected Officials! —George Rhynes

Received yesterday. -jsq
The following video shows Mr. Charles Judge!

“First off, you have to know what your job is.”
—Charles Judge
He was one of the several employees I supervised as Sporting Goods Department Manger at Wal-Mart Store #2615 in Valdosta, Georgia. On March 20, 2008, I was wrongfully terminated for “INABILITY TO PERFORM JOB” without training.


Video by George Boston Rhynes.

It has been 3 1/2 years since my wrongful termination and I have written Wal-Mart Stores Inc. thirty letters, thirteen videos, 34 pages of documented proof that I was never trained; nor entered into Wal-Mart Stores Inc. four week mandatory training program as other employees. Moreover, it should be a shame and disgrace that several former and current President Mike Duke has all ignored me as if I was a worker in the Republic of China or in some other third world nation!

Even more un-American is that Chairman David Glass along with his entire Wal-Mart Board of Directors has followed the local Wal-Mart Store Manager at Store #2615 in what is definitely unprofessional behavior along the lines of respecting workers rights. Wal-Mart Executives seem to believe that the American People (customers) have made Wal-Mart Stores Inc. a god beside God and answers to no one. More videos will follow from real workers and former assistant managers until you are as sure as I am that Americans need workers Rights in this NATION for all employees.

As elected officials (government officials) I do hope that you begin to look at workers rights and my wrongful termination without any recourse because I am in an “At Will to Work State”, Georgia. This means any worker can be fired for GOOD cause, BAD cause, or for no cause at all and like Wal-Mart. They are not required to provide a reason for you, your spouse, child or neighbor for why they wrongfully terminated you! http://walmartstore2615.blogspot.com

We are 100% sure that there is nothing Wal-Mart Executives or Board of Directors will or can do in my case or cases like mine. Therefore, as a Retired Military of the United Armed Forces that followed our “Code of Conduct” in the military need a code of conduct for (ALL) American Workers.

My wrongful termination has forced me to follow the same “CODE OF CONDUCT” that all United States Military Veterans had to follow. Therefore, if I could place my life on the line and face death for foreigners on foreign battlefields then surely I can stand up for my own family members and love ones.

Yes, I intend to fight as hard for myself, my own family and fellow American Workers here in the Home Land! God Bless both the righteous and the not so righteous. Peace, love and overstanding. We are not who we claim to be; but who we prove ourselves to be over a given period of time and after three and one-half years Wal-Mart EXECUTIVES has proven who they are to the American people and the world.

GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES
Retired United States Armed Forces Military Vietnam
A concerned citizens and brother of all humanity