Many of us seem to have forgotten that “[t]he object of government is the welfare of the people.” Many seem to believe that providing for the welfare of one individual has become our sole concern. We, the people, must defeat those who negate the public interest, who place profits above people. Proposed outsized grocery store mergers toda…
Many of us seem to have forgotten that “[t]he object of government is the welfare of the people.” Many seem to believe that providing for the welfare of one individual has become our sole concern. We, the people, must defeat those who negate the public interest, who place profits above people. Proposed outsized grocery store mergers today do no more to help the average shopper than did the mergers of steel companies or railroads in Roosevelt's time. The need for transparency, not just in the corporate world, but also in government, is even more essential now. It is up to us to make sure that we elect truth-tellers who place the greater good above their own personal desire for power. Voting is the most powerful tool that the people possess. We must use it wisely.
"These measures will require the oil companies and other energy producers to provide the public with the necessary information on their supplies. They will prevent the injustice of windfall profits for a few as a result of the sacrifices of the millions of Americans. "
1. Stalin
2. Satan
3. Nixon - Winner!
Not that Nixon was a fountain of light, but imagine a Republican saying anything similar today?
He also started the EPA, adfter seeing the large public response to the first Earth Day. in 1971. Imagine a Republican doing that! Things are so bad now even old Trickster Dick looks good.
He quietly fomented evil, being the good Quaker that he was, in addition to being a war monger. But he wasn’t 100% useless, like chump. I think he just wanted to fool some in the public square so that he could do his evil behind the scenes.
I think some portion of the Quaker heritage may have rubbed off. There was a very nasty streak in him, and he caused a lot of suffering for selfish reasons; and yet not so thoroughly reprehensible as St. Reagan (especially on environmental issues), let alone Trump.
But he, like both of them (and I’ll add W), apparently felt/feel like they are entitled to whatever. That’s a core problem as far as I’m concerned. I can’t think of one of our founders who thought it was all about them…
Nixon did a few really good things while he was President, unlike Trump who accomplished nothing but enabling Corporations, the 1% and the white faux-Christian Nationalists.
Thank you. Nixon was a son of a bitch but he had some decency. I truly believe he loved his wife and his dog Checkers. And I think he had some struggles with his conscience about Vietnam.
I agree with your points. That said, the grocery companies wanting to merge would say they’re just trying to remain competitive with the likes of Walmart and Amazon. 🥴
To big to fail is just another phrase to justify corporate bailouts with tax payers money. We pay twice....first through higher prices...because they can raise them...then we bail them out with our tax dollars during national crisis.
Everytime I hear proponents of 'too big to fail' I always pose the question, 'dont you believe in capitalism? Isn't a premise of capitalism that poorly managed corporations will fail and well managed will survive...and there is always a new and eager upstart corporation willing to buy the failed organization and work like the devil to make it work."
What is the corporation equivalent of pull yourself up by your bootstraps? (Stay solvent and make it work....or something like that?)
It's neo-feudalism dressed up as religious piety/patriotism. Allegedly government-enabled wealth transfers upward fosters morality and "jobs, jobs, jobs", in spite of plentiful evidence to the contrary. Allegedly, aid to those in misfortune creates "moral hazard", and aid or protection for workers is "job killing". You can find very pattern articulated in the news over the last several decades.
You will find a related argument in an even more pernicious form of feudalism in slavery. It's really a smokescreen over naked greed and sociopathy. If you think of it as it plays out in reality, it is pretty much the antithesis of Christian ethics, as well as patriotism.
One of the many nice things about living in France is buying perishables in the market. Every precinct has its market, three times a week, 7 am to about 2 pm. People talk to each other, the stallholders make jokes, there's food...
And it's so beautiful! Shapes and colours. Yellow, red, green, black. The fish all arranged according to their shape, usually swirling up to a swordfish peak. 2 pm it shuts, everything gets packed up or out, and by 3 pm the marketplace is empty and hosed down.
"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. " Former AG Eric Holder
And if you don't prosecute and let them get even bigger (they did) what then?
The derivatives and the sub-prime mortgages were also major contributors to the collapse.
Howard Clark spoke out against sub-prime mortgages for at least a couple of years before the crash. He warned homebuyers not to fall into the trap of 100% variable interest home loans.
I'm sure that many people listened and didn't fall in to the trap but millions more ended up losing their homes. I'll never understand why Obama didn't cap the interest rate increases on the mortgages at .5% a year. He bailed out the big banks but left millions of people literally out in the cold.
Trump's Treasury Secretary was brutal with foreclosures in CA throwing elderly people out of their homes for owing less than $100.
And now he's partners with Kushner on his Saudi Arabia deal. What a putz!
Right! And then there will be 3 and only 3. It will crush all others and we will be screwed.
We are talking about FOOD! Not to mention all the other staples we need like 'safe water' and TP and laundry soap and toothpaste etc that we buy when we're there buying FOOD.
They are doing it now, just not in the daylight. Take a look at a bar of soap. It has this 'interesting' shape - a concave rectangle, not a full rectangle like it used to be. How much soap was taken out of that bar, to be sold at the same or similar price? Where'd the extra soap go? Did the price of that bar go down? Take a look at your toilet paper (should I say 'bathroom tissue'?). How much distance is there, end to end on the holder, compared to just a few years ago. I figure 3/4" to 1." Where'd the paper go? How much less did a package of tissue cost? One more - my favorite. Miracle Whip, a staple of Kraft. The product used to be in a 1 quart or 32 oz. jar. What is it now? 28 oz? Where'd the other four ounces go? What no one here is talking too much about is the lack of visible, ethical companies. BTW: Do MBA students still study business ethics? If so, what do they do with the knowledge gained? Then, let me push the concept of business ethics to personal conscience. Where did it go? It got trampled under the feet of all the good Congressional representatives who bought what the lobbyists were selling. I listen and watch James Comer and I think, "How in hell did this dim bulb get into Congress? I wonder what his net worth will be once he leaves the hallowed halls. And, where's Rex Tillerson these days? I'm starting to rant. It's Sunday. No rants on Sunday! Peace, all.
Mike, good point about Walmart & Amazon. The more we lean on Amazon or Walmart to deliver many of the groceries we consume without needing to "go out" to the store, the more we feed the polluting effects of all their delivery trucks and excess packaging! A minor convenience for a major impact on climate-changing resources.
I’d add outsized that businesses with huge reserves of cash buying up local houses (single and multi family homes) do no more to help the average renter, much less anyone hoping to buy their 1st house (home) than I’ve ever seen.
These businesses (largely located out of state) will then raise the rents of the current renters for the next month. In most cases doubling or sometimes even tripling the rent. With just a 30 day notice this puts the current renter in a tough place. Now the average wage earner has to pay more of their weekly income simply to afford their rent. Their lives which were reasonably stable financially now have become more hand to mouth.
I know a few who live in two or three bedroom apartments getting more roommates than the bedrooms available simply to afford the rent. Living rooms become bedrooms. Storage closets become bedrooms. And those people moving in have been forced out by the place they lived being bought and their rent doubled. They couldn’t afford to stay so they move.
As mentioned the businesses buying up local properties are often located out of state. Their onslaught of buying as many houses as they can has driven the price of single and multi family homes through the roof. While real estate has always been a commodity the number of homes and apartments in one town being owned by one large corporation are becoming the next monopolies. I’m lucky enough to own my house. If not I couldn’t afford to live here.
Yes the power to vote must be used and by more than 50% of registered voters. Use it or lose it folks. What do you think Dictator Trump will do in his next term? Have caucuses take over voting from Pesky People?
Yes and RFKJR is campaigning on that. But as he has said , and what JFK wanted on his grave - He kept the peace. That’s the first priority of government.
Yes Jen, I get that. I’m still laughing over the comment someone made last Sunday when she posted a picture of the full moon. Someone first quoted the Creedence song - there’s a bad moon on the rise. And then, someone else said , back in that time she was driving around partying with friends singing that tune when she had to go. And so she sang There’s a bathroom on the right!
I think you have credentials and in house knowledge about vaccines. Have you seen the club Random with Bill Maher talking to RFKJR about that?Isn’t there some good reason to be skeptical about the vaccines?
If government ensures its real priorities, namely life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, keeping the peace will naturally ensue. When keeping the peace, whether within the country or internationally, becomes the number one priority, we have we have dictators and wars (see Chamberlain).
Many of us seem to have forgotten that “[t]he object of government is the welfare of the people.” Many seem to believe that providing for the welfare of one individual has become our sole concern. We, the people, must defeat those who negate the public interest, who place profits above people. Proposed outsized grocery store mergers today do no more to help the average shopper than did the mergers of steel companies or railroads in Roosevelt's time. The need for transparency, not just in the corporate world, but also in government, is even more essential now. It is up to us to make sure that we elect truth-tellers who place the greater good above their own personal desire for power. Voting is the most powerful tool that the people possess. We must use it wisely.
Who said:
"These measures will require the oil companies and other energy producers to provide the public with the necessary information on their supplies. They will prevent the injustice of windfall profits for a few as a result of the sacrifices of the millions of Americans. "
1. Stalin
2. Satan
3. Nixon - Winner!
Not that Nixon was a fountain of light, but imagine a Republican saying anything similar today?
He also started the EPA, adfter seeing the large public response to the first Earth Day. in 1971. Imagine a Republican doing that! Things are so bad now even old Trickster Dick looks good.
He quietly fomented evil, being the good Quaker that he was, in addition to being a war monger. But he wasn’t 100% useless, like chump. I think he just wanted to fool some in the public square so that he could do his evil behind the scenes.
I think some portion of the Quaker heritage may have rubbed off. There was a very nasty streak in him, and he caused a lot of suffering for selfish reasons; and yet not so thoroughly reprehensible as St. Reagan (especially on environmental issues), let alone Trump.
But he, like both of them (and I’ll add W), apparently felt/feel like they are entitled to whatever. That’s a core problem as far as I’m concerned. I can’t think of one of our founders who thought it was all about them…
Nixon did a few really good things while he was President, unlike Trump who accomplished nothing but enabling Corporations, the 1% and the white faux-Christian Nationalists.
Some quite good and others very bad. He was the last Republican president to defend our earthy environment.
Thank you. Nixon was a son of a bitch but he had some decency. I truly believe he loved his wife and his dog Checkers. And I think he had some struggles with his conscience about Vietnam.
I agree with your points. That said, the grocery companies wanting to merge would say they’re just trying to remain competitive with the likes of Walmart and Amazon. 🥴
Or we could enforce anti-trust. Albertson- Kroger got resistance, as they should. Too Big to fail is just plain too big.
To big to fail is just another phrase to justify corporate bailouts with tax payers money. We pay twice....first through higher prices...because they can raise them...then we bail them out with our tax dollars during national crisis.
Everytime I hear proponents of 'too big to fail' I always pose the question, 'dont you believe in capitalism? Isn't a premise of capitalism that poorly managed corporations will fail and well managed will survive...and there is always a new and eager upstart corporation willing to buy the failed organization and work like the devil to make it work."
What is the corporation equivalent of pull yourself up by your bootstraps? (Stay solvent and make it work....or something like that?)
It's neo-feudalism dressed up as religious piety/patriotism. Allegedly government-enabled wealth transfers upward fosters morality and "jobs, jobs, jobs", in spite of plentiful evidence to the contrary. Allegedly, aid to those in misfortune creates "moral hazard", and aid or protection for workers is "job killing". You can find very pattern articulated in the news over the last several decades.
You will find a related argument in an even more pernicious form of feudalism in slavery. It's really a smokescreen over naked greed and sociopathy. If you think of it as it plays out in reality, it is pretty much the antithesis of Christian ethics, as well as patriotism.
No, the merger will be a loss if employees, fewer grocery stores, and higher food prices.
One of the many nice things about living in France is buying perishables in the market. Every precinct has its market, three times a week, 7 am to about 2 pm. People talk to each other, the stallholders make jokes, there's food...
I’ve seen those when I’ve been in France. I’m so jealous. You don’t even have to get in your car and drive there.
And it's so beautiful! Shapes and colours. Yellow, red, green, black. The fish all arranged according to their shape, usually swirling up to a swordfish peak. 2 pm it shuts, everything gets packed up or out, and by 3 pm the marketplace is empty and hosed down.
Ahhh. I would love that!
I agree, they’ve all gotten too big. My point is only that Walmart and Amazon are far bigger problems than Kroger and Albertsons.
"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. " Former AG Eric Holder
And if you don't prosecute and let them get even bigger (they did) what then?
2008 Financial collapse—“too big to fail”
The derivatives and the sub-prime mortgages were also major contributors to the collapse.
Howard Clark spoke out against sub-prime mortgages for at least a couple of years before the crash. He warned homebuyers not to fall into the trap of 100% variable interest home loans.
I'm sure that many people listened and didn't fall in to the trap but millions more ended up losing their homes. I'll never understand why Obama didn't cap the interest rate increases on the mortgages at .5% a year. He bailed out the big banks but left millions of people literally out in the cold.
Trump's Treasury Secretary was brutal with foreclosures in CA throwing elderly people out of their homes for owing less than $100.
And now he's partners with Kushner on his Saudi Arabia deal. What a putz!
I have stopped ordering from Amazon. It’s a little something…
And will create food deserts.
MORE food deserts
Colorado AG is suing to stop it
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has sued to stop the Kroger Albertsons grocery store merger.
https://coag.gov/2024/colorado-attorney-general-phil-weiser-files-lawsuit-to-block-proposed-kroger-albertsons-merger/#:~:text=Feb.%2014%2C%202024%20(DENVER,largest%20supermarket%20chains%20in%20Colorado.
Love this is happening in our state and do hope it is effective.
Right! And then there will be 3 and only 3. It will crush all others and we will be screwed.
We are talking about FOOD! Not to mention all the other staples we need like 'safe water' and TP and laundry soap and toothpaste etc that we buy when we're there buying FOOD.
They are doing it now, just not in the daylight. Take a look at a bar of soap. It has this 'interesting' shape - a concave rectangle, not a full rectangle like it used to be. How much soap was taken out of that bar, to be sold at the same or similar price? Where'd the extra soap go? Did the price of that bar go down? Take a look at your toilet paper (should I say 'bathroom tissue'?). How much distance is there, end to end on the holder, compared to just a few years ago. I figure 3/4" to 1." Where'd the paper go? How much less did a package of tissue cost? One more - my favorite. Miracle Whip, a staple of Kraft. The product used to be in a 1 quart or 32 oz. jar. What is it now? 28 oz? Where'd the other four ounces go? What no one here is talking too much about is the lack of visible, ethical companies. BTW: Do MBA students still study business ethics? If so, what do they do with the knowledge gained? Then, let me push the concept of business ethics to personal conscience. Where did it go? It got trampled under the feet of all the good Congressional representatives who bought what the lobbyists were selling. I listen and watch James Comer and I think, "How in hell did this dim bulb get into Congress? I wonder what his net worth will be once he leaves the hallowed halls. And, where's Rex Tillerson these days? I'm starting to rant. It's Sunday. No rants on Sunday! Peace, all.
President Biden spoke about that shrinking but there must have been bigger news that day. (Don the con called someone a bad name?)
Mike, good point about Walmart & Amazon. The more we lean on Amazon or Walmart to deliver many of the groceries we consume without needing to "go out" to the store, the more we feed the polluting effects of all their delivery trucks and excess packaging! A minor convenience for a major impact on climate-changing resources.
Thank you, Betsy Smith, brilliantly conveyed, especially the kicker:
“Voting is the most powerful tool that the people possess. We must use it wisely.”
Yes, “use it wisely” — but for the love of democracy, USE IT!
I’d add outsized that businesses with huge reserves of cash buying up local houses (single and multi family homes) do no more to help the average renter, much less anyone hoping to buy their 1st house (home) than I’ve ever seen.
These businesses (largely located out of state) will then raise the rents of the current renters for the next month. In most cases doubling or sometimes even tripling the rent. With just a 30 day notice this puts the current renter in a tough place. Now the average wage earner has to pay more of their weekly income simply to afford their rent. Their lives which were reasonably stable financially now have become more hand to mouth.
I know a few who live in two or three bedroom apartments getting more roommates than the bedrooms available simply to afford the rent. Living rooms become bedrooms. Storage closets become bedrooms. And those people moving in have been forced out by the place they lived being bought and their rent doubled. They couldn’t afford to stay so they move.
As mentioned the businesses buying up local properties are often located out of state. Their onslaught of buying as many houses as they can has driven the price of single and multi family homes through the roof. While real estate has always been a commodity the number of homes and apartments in one town being owned by one large corporation are becoming the next monopolies. I’m lucky enough to own my house. If not I couldn’t afford to live here.
Yes the power to vote must be used and by more than 50% of registered voters. Use it or lose it folks. What do you think Dictator Trump will do in his next term? Have caucuses take over voting from Pesky People?
It's up to us right now to keep him from having another term.
Lest we lose it forever.
Yes and RFKJR is campaigning on that. But as he has said , and what JFK wanted on his grave - He kept the peace. That’s the first priority of government.
People re ignoring you for a reason. We don't believe in saviors
Yes Jen, I get that. I’m still laughing over the comment someone made last Sunday when she posted a picture of the full moon. Someone first quoted the Creedence song - there’s a bad moon on the rise. And then, someone else said , back in that time she was driving around partying with friends singing that tune when she had to go. And so she sang There’s a bathroom on the right!
I think you have credentials and in house knowledge about vaccines. Have you seen the club Random with Bill Maher talking to RFKJR about that?Isn’t there some good reason to be skeptical about the vaccines?
If government ensures its real priorities, namely life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, keeping the peace will naturally ensue. When keeping the peace, whether within the country or internationally, becomes the number one priority, we have we have dictators and wars (see Chamberlain).