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This a job for the Post Office! Why should Walmart be allowed to be a banker for the poor and working people?
Mathboy, you can afford those fees and to keep such a balance in your account (as can I). But not everyone is so fortunate. This is really predatory capitalism on those least able to afford it.
They are trying to undercut the proposal to reestablish Post Office savings accounts. By getting enough people the demand for another system won't be there, even though the USPS would likely be far less predatory.
If anyone missed it I posted a great link to an article about Walmart on yesterdays blog. Here it is again. We are literally shopping our way straight to the unemployment line.
http://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know
Richardofjeffer...I was just going to say that! It's way too close to the old "company store" concept of indentured servatude.
I wish more people would move their bank accounts to credit unions. They're so much better than banks on so many levels.
This might be a bit off topic, but this ebola story is sucking up too much attention that could be better spent elsewhere. I'd like to suggest some topics that bother me much more and are much more likely to affect all of our lives in the months and years ahead.
1) The first is "Civil Forfeiture Laws" and how out of hand they are. Here is an interesting piece by John Oliver and Forbes Magazine that sum up what is taking place right now all across the country right under our noses. I'd suggest everyone check this out because you might learn about it the hard way after you, or someone you care about, becomes another victim. At the rate this problem is getting out of hand, that event is only a matter of time.
https://autos.yahoo.com/news/how-cops-take-millions-from-motorists-not-charged-with-crimes-215603712.html
2) The second is "Walmart". As you know, walmart is responsible for running many local businesses out of business. It is also responsible for overburdening our social safety net and influencing our politicians. Did you also know that it is destroying our high end businesses as well. Walmart is a serious contributor to our unemployment problem and in this article which interviews former managers from companies that did business with Walmart in the past, their technique of destroying their own supply base is exposed for all to see. Most provocative reading indeed. The gist of the article is that "we are shopping our way straight to the unemployment line." This is another issue that must be dealt with in a timely fashion to save what is left or our economy.
http://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know
Palindromedary ~ "Aaachoo!!" Calm down and relax! You are really getting a little too excited about this uber rare and isolated incident. I highly doubt that anything serious is going to come of it; and, if it does, it won't be any time soon. Even if something disastrous were to occur, simply staying home would be protection enough. Finally, if something were to occur that might affect you--as far away from Texas as you live--you would have plenty of time to see it coming.
Personally, I'm much more afraid of the overreaction that our government would have to contain such a pandemic outbreak. Remember the Boston marathon and the instant police state. I'm quite sure that hopeless little virus would be instantly surrounded, out manned and out gunned. So would all the people who might be affected. There would be overnight concentration/death triages/camps set up in a generously wide perimeter around any area suspect and everyone inside would instantly lose all their civil rights, property, and freedom regardless of their health or health risk. If I were you I'd be more concerned about what is going on in Washington DC, Syria, and Fukushima than what's happening in the Philippines, Africa, or Texas.
At times like this we need to remind ourselves that we have already met the enemy and know quite well who they are; and, they are US.
Of course, the choice is up to you. They are your precious paranoid prognostications to enjoy and you should enjoy them anyway you see fit. Here is to our sacred human rights of freedom and choice. Enjoy them while you can! Cheers!
From the same "expert" doctors who have said that the Hospital that treated Thomas Eric Duncan was a "first class" hospital, who now says that they didn't think it would be a good idea to shut off passengers coming to the US from West African countries, just how right can they be if that "first class" hospital sent Duncan away the first time even after he had told them that he had just come from West Africa, had all the signs of Ebola? Sure doesn't look like a "first class" hospital to me. And if that hospital was considered a "first class" hospital...what about all of those other hospitals that may not be "first class" hospitals? Maybe those same people would have said that checking everyone coming into the country for signs of Ebola was going too far?
Now Spain has an Ebola case. I've heard reports even on main stream news...and not Fox news either...that this is a rapidly spreading disease that could wind up infecting millions of people. But, if you fancy yourself as rather level-headed and are being very "adult" about this maybe you should just go shopping....but I think I'll just try to stay away from the public for a while...physically anyway. You know, maybe that's why people keep voting for Democrats or Republicans even though they both keep screwing us...they think they are being "level-headed" and sensible. How did Obama work out for you the first time? The second time? So, they threw some people a carrot...ACA (originally a Republican plan that, in addition, wrote into law that Medicare cannot take advantage of bulk prices...they have to pay whatever price the pharmaceuticals want to charge). I guess it works for some people anyway. What about the costly wars that Obama continues to wage. And what about increase government secrecy and prosecution of whistleblowers and a government that favors rich people and screws the rest of us. What about massive spying on us? And I'd bet that no matter how badly Democrats may talk him down now...if it were possible for him to run a third time...I'd bet the same dummies would continue to vote for him because they'd be so scared of a Republican President. And it is not just Obama but all of Congress...the Congress has something like an 8% approval yet these crooks continue to be reelected. So it was the last time and so would it be again. Talk about continually repeating the same stupid things over and over again and expecting different results. Shear folly!
Now, there is another hemorrhagic disease making it's rounds...Marburg Hemorrhagic Disease....another big killer similar to Ebola. It comes from the same family as Ebola. It has about an 80% lethality. It does the same thing that Ebola does...causes the organs to turn to mush and bleeding out of every oriface ...including pores of the skin.
Since Ebola or Marburg, not to mention the other similar diseases, has the same symptoms as a common cold or influenza, if hospitals are swamped with people thinking they might have Ebola...I wonder how many who are actually infected with Ebola will fall through the cracks. The health care professional will ask "have you been to West Africa or been in contact with someone who has recently been there?" And most will probably say no. But, how do they know? The next case might be from people who never even knew someone who had been in West Africa..but who had touched the same things...perhaps sneezed on maybe even from behind in a crowded bus or theater or grocery store. Not many people are very fanatically diligent enough to wash their hands after they touch things. Sure, maybe after going to the bathroom...or before eating..they wash their hands but what about the faucet handles or the restroom door handles...what about anything and everything in public that people can touch? Lots of people get itchy noses and rub them or worse with their fingers. Children are not usually very conscious of washing their hands frequently. Is your nose, just now, starting to get itchy? Don't you feel like rubbing it to stop the itch?
So, the health care worker will undoubtedly dismiss patients just because they have not been in W. Africa nor have known, or knowingly come in contact with, someone who has been in W. Africa. Maybe someone has just flown in from some other country...like Spain....or France...and think they are safe because it wasn't W. Africa. But someone from W. Africa can fly to Spain or France, contaminate someone else who flies to the US.
mathboy, what is it about you that makes me sad? Wal-Mart is BANKING on limited ATM access, not everybody lives so close to their bank as you, and that the people, duped into opening accounts with them, will not have 500 dollars in their accounts. Their not altruist doing it out of kindness or convenience to the costumers, Their wanting to profit off their misfortune. Their providing a service based on economic model of profit off the poor. Their betting their account holders will not be able to maintain their balance, so they can rake in the charge fees. Plus, Wal-Mart will have their costumers money close to the company store. History is a rinse and repeat process (trademark).
Off topic: I have to have a prescription from my physician to buy an antibiotic. Animal farmers dole out antibiotics by the shovelful. Where do they buy their massive supply? A rational society would criminalize this behavior. The effectiveness of antibiotics is a part of our commons and should be protected as such.
That doesn't sound horrible. I have a money market account at my bank. If my balance drops below $2500, they assess a fee of $15. I have no idea about ATM fees, because I live close enough to the bank that if I ever need to withdraw cash, I can do it there for no charge.
"War on terror", "war on drugs", "war on crime"... We've still got terror, drugs and crime, with hardly a dent in any one of these! So much for all this bluster. - AIW
Oh boy!! Where do I sign up?
Richinfolsom, I concur. Well said. - AIW
If there's one position which should be non-partisan, it's this one. We need someone to handle our national health policy as soon as possible.
Funny how the same party that pushes this "climate cange" agenda is the same party that sent US jobs to 3rd world countries ( via: NAFTA) knowing that the corporations were going to profit from the lack of environmental laws.
I appreciate Thim's comments! Indeed, the odds of wining lotto are better than contracting Ebola or being killed in the United States by an ISIS terrorist. It is far more likely that you or I might be killed by a drunk driver or gun fire randomly sprayed by a semi automatic weapon into a group of college kids partying near a beautiful Santa Barbara beach. 100 people (average) died in auto accidents today, half of which involved alcohol.
The unfolding of human events in West Africa, a bewildered continent of westn neglect and abuse. Overcome by civil war with untold, needless loss of death, starvation, cure able childhood disease of deadly poverty. For a brief moment the world will but a moment call our ADHD attention to the realty of their scant existence. No medicine. No sanitation. No education of society.
As the millionaire anchors read their scripts from highly secure, high rise studios, the reality hit hard! We are witnessing live the perpetual fulfillment of the dark ages - the days of the plague and the brutal, warring factions of the rich and the zealots continue on their path of eternal war.
Neutrino: I agree with you. If Ebola virus is so "hard to get" then how did those doctors become infected? They wore hazmat suits and face masks and gloves. How did they get infected even after taking all of the precautions that they knew they had to take...washing down with a disinfectant in their hazmat suits before they got out of them and then using disinfectant on their bodies after they got out of their hazmat suits. They even had to step into a container of disinfectant upon entering the contaminated area and before leaving.
It's not just kissing, sex, or other things that transfers bodily fluids...even shaking hands...the sweat from the palms can transfer the virus. Those viruses can be left on door knobs or faucet handles in public rest rooms. They are, arguably, not living organisms till they connect to a person or animal's cells. You can't kill them with antibiotics after they get into the body. Antibiotics only work to kill bacteria...not viruses. You can't kill them with RAID before they get into the body. ;-} All you can do is wash them off with soap and water before you transfer them into your body. I'm wondering if Ebola can get into the body through our largest organ...the skin. Then, perhaps into the blood stream. If Ebola can be found in the water vapor from
a carrier of Ebola's exhalations and a nearby person inhales that water vapor...then perhaps it can be transmitted "through the air".
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http://www.diffen.com/difference/Bacteria_vs_Virus
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We are being attacked all the time by various bacteria and viruses and the body can usually fight them off. It usually depends upon the level of exposure and how healthy a person is (the condition of the immune system) when exposed as well as the toxicity of the kind of contaminant. Bacteria exhibit characteristics of living things, even outside of the body, and can be "killed". Viruses can't be killed because they don't exhibit characteristics of living things outside of the body. When they attach to cells in the body, they start to exhibit living characteristics...replicating and often going through a metamorphosis into different strains . Some strains can be more lethal, others may not not be lethal. The Ebola Reston virus in the lab in Reston, Virginia accident turned out to be not as lethal as other strains that were occuring in Africa at the time. Those lab workers who were contaminated didn't die and they were able to quickly get it under control. I understand that they had to burn the whole lab and the Macaque monkeys, from the Philippines, that they were using to conduct the tests.
http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Ebola.aspx
Some people are only benefited by gas and oil and in my list I place USA as number one where the oil consumption is over the normal line.
Think of it this way...Limpballs is part of the psi-wars against the American people that the ruling elite is conducting. The ruling elite wants us to vote for one of the two main parties that run this country...Republican or Democrat. They certainly don't want the people to massively riot against them like has happened in other countries. So Limpballs and his ilk creates the propaganda that many dummies may believe...and they'll most likely vote Republican. But it's really a two edge sword. The other edge is used to scare people into voting Democrat, because the Republican talk scares them, so they vote Democrat. But that's not going to help us, the 99%, out one bit. The ruling elite wants you to either vote Republican or Democrat. If we all voted Green or even better, Communist (if that party was allowed to even run for political office in the US). It would scare the bejesus out of the ruling elite and they might see fit to change their ways a little. If it doesn't happen that way, then I'm afraid that we will all eventually have to take more drastic measures...like they have done in other countries that have gone through revolutions. And that would get pretty messy. We have to show the Democrats, and their puppet masters, that we are no longer going to be fooled nor will we keep playing their game of bait and switch. They bait us with progressive and liberal sounding speeches and the specter of "what if the Republicans gained more control" then switch to their real selves...no different than the Republicans, after they get elected.
No, Ebola is NOT our 'greatest' threat That's a tossup between the Military Inydustrial Complex, the Medical Industrial Complex, the Prison Industrial Complex, and , largely, billionaire inheritors in general. We have to find a way to neutralize these ?people.
Thank you!
aphrodite: It scares me even more that the Democrats might gain the power. The Democrats are no better than the Republicans...perhaps worse...because they do the bidding of the ruling elite...just like the Republicans do...except they have so many people fooled into believing that they are going to change things for the betterment of the constituents that voted for them. There really is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats....just different window dressing...they both work for the ruling elite...the corporations...Wall Street...and the Bankster...and especially the Military Industrial Complex. Look how these manipulators have once again steered people into being ok with spending all that money on killing people in their newest war in the Middle East. If it isn't false horror stories of Iraqi soldiers bayoneting babies from incubators or throwing them out the windows of the hospital (Bush 1) it's a Neocon created 9/11. Now, it's ISIS beheading a few westerners! Americans are such fraidy cat pushovers.
DAnneMarc: I don't think it really has much to do with reducing the population of Africa but more about experimenting on poor blacks in Africa that not many people in the world is going to complain about much. Remember the Tuskegee syphilis experiments? And I don't think passing out free condoms would do any good anyway. The Africans (males anyway) would not put up with them. Some more enlighten ones might but the masses of relatively uneducated ones wouldn't. Although, the primary reason may not necessarily be to depopulate Africa...I don't think those who are doing the experiments would find it a bad side effect...kill two birds with one stone...so to speak. I think that such things as AIDS and Ebola are the results of biological warfare labs that have used recombinant DNA to create these diseases and they have failed to contain it. It is also very telling that AIDS had popped up, in the 80's only in those locations where Gays were getting inoculated for Hepatitus B by the World Health Organizations.
Is elite globalist next attempt at race war in America, which media consumers are swallowing hook, line and sinker. Fearing fellow humans of a different shade of skin tone. These racist fascist around this town can't think without neo-con media telling them what to think, who to hate.