Category Archives: Economics

John Mackey: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare – WSJ.com

There is a huge amount of anger, and potential boycotting of Whole Foods. This is ever since their CEP wrote this editorial in the Wall Street Journal:

I’ve read it, and some of his points are valid. Others are utter bullshit. He – and his ghostwriter, the hateful Clintonite/FAUXNews troll Lanny Davis – swear it isn’t attack on the President. I beg to differ.

Here is a three-step example of how to attack the President on health care reform:

1. Write it in the Wall Street Journal. They don’t even pretend to be “fair and balanced”. They are pro-business and anti-everything-that-isn’t, all the time.

2. Have your article headlined using the word “ObamaCare”, which is GOP speak for “we will never vote for anything having the tacit blessing of a black President”.

3. Begin your article with an anti-socialism quote by Margaret Thatcher.

Still think I believe you were planning a well-meaning, middle-of-the-road sensible argument? You must think I’m a teabagging deather/birther/healther/incest-loving Republican.

In the article, he ties his company to his wingnut views by basically stating that we don’t need health care reform because all we need to do is buy and eat from Whole Foods.

Wow.

This is bizarre seeing as he recently stated that his stores sell a lot of junk. Hmm, isn’t that an odd admission from a supposed healthy food merchant?

The LA Times covers the brouhaha and The American Prospect provides some background on why Whole Foods isn’t as darling of an operation as you might have thought. We used to have some Wild Oats out here so I kind of knew some of this stuff.

Slate has an old article that I remember reading concerning the false “good” of our big organic food stores.

To their credit? Whole Foods now hosts a forum section dedicated to the editorial. Granted, they apparently deleted a multitude of threads prior to this move, so give that all the grains of salt you need to.

My favorite so far is this one created by an illiterate neo-con who now plans to shop at Whole Foods and supposedly makes 300k a year. Good luck with that buddy.

At DailyKos, a roundup of various opinions on the matter. Granted, most of them echo each other.

Here’s my personal thing. I don’t shop at Wal-Mart for a variety of reasons. I don’t shop at Home Depot since their CEO wanted anyone who backed a union to be “shot dead”.

Basically, I don’t buy stuff at places that adamantly are against me and mine and the things we support. Granted, mass media demands companies to advertise as many places as possible so I get that there is a bit of impossibility in the task.

That said, I used to grab lunch at Whole Foods and sit outside and read a book. (The one closest to us is across the way from a Borders.) Well, that’s done.

There may be a need to go to the damned place now and then (they have excellent cheeses) but I’ll be doing my damnedest to avoid giving this twit my hard earned cash whenever possible.

Why Close Gitmo?Think Progress » After Handing Out Jumbo Stimulus Checks, Jindal Still Refuses To Give Obama Any Credit For StimulusWhy Close Gitmo?

ThinkProgress points out the hypocrisy of GOP governors, Piyush Jindal in this case, of making an ass out of themselves of refusing federal stimulus money, then quietly accepting it, THEN taking credit for the money as if it magically appeared instead of getting on their knees and thanking the United States for creating jobs in their states seeing as their incompetent and/or broke selves couldn’t do it.

Think Progress » Executives receive one-third of all pay in the U.S.

Does anybody seriously believe that it’s a good thing that business execs earn a third of all payroll in this nation?

This is, frankly, utter bullcrap. Yeah, let’s tax the bastards to pay for health care. Let’s not forget that a bunch of these bastiches pushed for the Iraq War, got rich off of it, and still are.

Others are oil execs. Some are the same bankers we’re bailing out because they screwed our economy up.

Tax ’em. Then cut their damned pay.

Robert Reich’s Blog: The House: Tax the Wealthy to Keep Everyone Healthy

Since I plugged Krugman, I had to go sanitize myself by checking out Robert Reich’s blog. I read this yesterday concerning taxing the utmost wealthy to pay for health care. A good read.

Also check out his recent Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan-related entries. Tie this in with Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone article and his most recent commentary on the subject. Check out his interview on Here and Now yesterday as well.

Businesses should let go of health care

I’ve been avoiding the public health plan debate on the old blog because I don’t even see another plausible side to the argument other than greed. Or maybe just plain evil.

So, on Friday, I really, really enjoyed this commentary on Marketplace of all places. I mean, I enjoy the program but it is usually chock full of conservative financial types. It was wonderful to hear a logical, and accurate, voice telling business that they are idiots for not wanting to get out of the health care business.

Case in point? Both Chrysler and GM exist today in a post-bankruptcy world and solvent precisely because the government found a way for them to get rid of their health care obligations.

It’s a pretty “duh” moment for this country but big business and GOP are too stupid to see it.

And so, we have Senators who already have public health care reading the words of the private health care lobby, who is currently spending $1.4 million A DAY to fight off a public health care option. Why? Well, if the public plan can give care to the 45-47 million who don’t have insurance, and draw in folks like me who hate paying more money for less coverage year after year after year, you could easily have a public plan of at least 100 million Americans fighting for better care at a cheaper price.

And that’s bad for business while being good for American citizens. Since when was the health of a nation supposed to be something measured on a balance sheet rather than a health chart anyway?

If you want another reason to loathe the health industry, listen to this interview I heard this morning. Steve Inskeep is one of NPR’s conservative bullshit artists and even he seemed to be creeped out by Dr. Sam Nussbaum of WellPoint. Seriously, give that one a listen and you’ll see why I previously stated that greed and evil are the only stances against health care reform that seem accurate. And that guy is both.

R.I.P.: Budget Woes Spell Doom for Roadside Rest Stops – WSJ.com

Another sign of the recession: rest stops are closing up across America.

Face it, when states can’t even afford to let visitors easily take a pee break, we’ve got some financial issues to fix in this country. And meanwhile, governors across America are trying to reject stimulus money and instead focus on cheating on their wives or just plain quitting their jobs to go fishing.

Genius!