Thanksgiving Weekend Open Thread

China agrees with you too.

Thank you but I really do not care not it is practical for me to be choosy.
If you want to just buy American I respect right to do so but I do have the right to ignore such near slightness.
Think of all us that develop , market, transport and sell the product made in china, it our jobs that is supported by free trade.

My mother used to get a discount on her AT&T account (because she works for the local school district) but it was still more expensive for her to have a separate account through AT&T (even with her government employee discount) than to add her to my Verizon account (she used to have the $89.99 Family Talk plan with 1400 minutes on two phones with a 15 percent discount). Now it costs $60 ($30 per dumb phone) to add them to what I am already paying with Verizon (and they get unlimited talk and text instead of the 1400 minutes with the risk of overages).

It's a good thing that we got a better deal on mom and grandma's cell phones because mom took a reduction in hours due to budget cuts. They don't use any data (other than mom likes to take pictures with her phone and she uses MMS to send them to her E-mail).

Yes figuring out cell plans these days is rocket scientist stuff.

Pulling out of this discussion. Enough said.

Some people think I am blessed, because I only work 13.5 hours on 3 days on weekend nights and then get 4 days off. They don't understand working nights for long hours is hard and when you take those days off you don't get those days full because you're used to sleep in late. I start before midnight and end at noon, so the earliest hours I feel ready to go is 7am. Yes, sometimes I can adjust and get up earlier but not often. I would rather work 5 days a week and get 2 days off on weekend.

My vacation days are adjusted from 2 weeks to 1 week for this schedule. I think its the same everywhere.

Well I just got done screwing the country. We crossed the virtual picket line and did all our Christmas shopping online.

I'm talking about food stamps. Since Walmart essentially only hires part time, and with their computer based predicted needs scheduling these people can not obtain a second job as they could before ( being on what appears to be a random schedule )

Thus these people are forced to get food stamps to put food on the table.

Its just logic.

As for who is responsible, at this point it really doesn't matter (IMHO Corporate America ). It's like people have lost all compassion for the poor and uneducated.

Mom just pulled the turkey out of the oven. She said she would pay extra to get one without the guts stuffed inside. Removing and discarding the guts is the nastiest part of thanksgiving. Bought the Turkey on Monday at Big Y and thawed it in the fridge until we cooked it today.

Looking forward to a nice dinner. Usually we spend Thanksgiving with grandma but the inspection sticker on my car ran out and I cannot afford to get it fixed so I have to take the bus. I could take the train to Grandma's house but I have no transportation once I get there (as Biddeford, ME has useless public transportation) and there is a shortage of rental cars with the fleets taking a bath in floodwaters courtesy of Sandy. And I have a cat, which means that you cannot take them on public transportation.

"I wouldn't call Soldiers "Workers""

Please enlighten us as to what you would call Soldiers (or any other military person)?

I guess changing out a jet engine, fueling air craft, maintaining vehicles is just recreation, right?

In which branch did you serve and for how long?

I think this is a big reason why retail has high churn. People working in it find out they will never ever have the same schedule.

Soldiers are Soldiers and I am PROUD to say I didn't serve in any branch.

Why am I not surprised?

Not only that but many of our soldiers are still being shot at as I type this in a certain Middle Eastern hellhole that will go unmentioned.

But no, when it comes to their holidays we must honor them or God help us. But they don't honor ours. Bullshit I tell you, bullshit.

Soldiers used to be soldiers when they actually fought to protect the country and our freedom. Now, they are a private group of mercenaries doing the bidding of an imperialistic government.

My brother was duped into joining the Army and did 2 1/2 tours in Dessert Storm (was not allowed to leave at the end of his 2nd tour)... all he has to show for it now is Gulf War sickness.

I have a propane smoker.

I just used my Kenmore electric range that I bought earlier this year to cook my turkey. It did not scorch the bird like that piece of junk landlord provided stove.

I have to learn how to use it. I'll probably practice on a few roasting chickens as I am new to smoking food. I have had smoked food back in the midwest, just never smoked food myself.

I am thankful for the fact I have Comcast for cable TV as Charter (who serves some of the neighboring communities) is in a carriage dispute with WWLP (who is my favorite TV station with the best local newscasts in my opinion). Maybe Comcast never gets into disputes with NBC stations since Comcast is a majority owner of NBC-Universal. Tomorrow is the deadline that WWLP and Charter have to resolve the dispute or they will no longer be on Charter's cable system.

Can't miss the evening news and Wheel of Fortune. Comcast seems to never get into carriage disputes with programming providers, they just give in and raise our cable rates.

Watching Wheel Of Fortune right now. No carriage dispute here.

High churn is an understatement

said by Wikipedia :

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With close to 2.2 million employees worldwide, Walmart has faced a torrent of lawsuits and issues with regards to its workforce. These issues involve low wages, poor working conditions, inadequate health care, as well as issues involving the company's strong anti-union policies. Critics point to Walmart's high turnover rate as evidence of an unhappy workforce, although other factors may be involved. Approximately 70% of its employees leave within the first year.

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quote:

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Walmart has also faced accusations involving poor working conditions of its employees. For example, a 2005 class action lawsuit in Missouri asserted approximately 160,000 to 200,000 people who were forced to work off-the-clock, were denied overtime pay, or were not allowed to take rest and lunch breaks. In 2000, Walmart paid $50 million to settle a class-action suit that asserted that 69,000 current and former Walmart employees in Colorado had been forced to work off-the-clock.

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»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr ··· _Walmart

Same thing is starting to happen on Christmas. More and more establishments staying open, meaning people have to work and miss the important family holidays.

First, they call for volunteers. After that it becomes mandatory.

The Holidays are fast becoming just like any other day of the year for many people--- and this will grow.

I think people would be perfectly happy in not shopping ON Thanksgiving day itself, but waiting till Friday.... all the stores have to do is not open. Instead they open with their mega sales to basically lure people in who otherwise would have stayed home digesting turkey.

The solution is simple, and doesn't need to be based on Blue laws.

The answer is to merely legislate that non-essential industries have to pay 3x+ normal wages on certain national holidays.

Problem solved. Fast food joints, Gas stations, and other retail/service type stores would close on those days, rather then pay the employees a fair wage to compensate them for their sacrifice.

Everybody happy. Holidays, and no lost sales--- they'd get them all the next day.

Simple-- Pro-family, pro-worker. This is why it will never happen.