Only about 2% of those polled reported any benefit from the new GOP tax bill.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Only 2 percent of American adults reported receiving a bonus, a bump in pay or another perk due to the Republican tax overhaul passed in December, a new survey found. 

Twenty-seven percent of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they believe the legislation will increase the amount they pay in taxes, while 24 percent said they think they will pay less in taxes and 23 percent did not anticipate their tax payment will be altered. 

A third of the respondents polled said the new legislation made them more likely to cast a ballot for a Democrat, while a quarter of those surveyed said the same for a Republican. 

GOP lawmakers have commended companies like Walmart for announcing bonuses or additional employee benefits due to the tax law’s passage late last year. Democrats have slammed the legislation, which President Trump signed into law before the New Year, as a tax cut for the wealthy.

Oh yes, the bonuses. About that...

Courtesy of Vice:

Consider the one-time, $1,000 bonuses for employees that many companies, like Comcast and AT&T, have announced. First of all, one-time bonuses, while nice to have, are not wage increases. The promise of the tax cut was not that it would let companies throw a few bucks in the employee tip jar, but permanently raise pay. Bonuses don’t make up for stagnant wages, as Southwest Airlines’ mechanics union, which has been locked in a contract battle for over five years, told the company. 

The Comcast and AT&T bonuses were also announced late last year, allowing them to be written off as a business expense in 2017. If a business gave a bonus in 2017, it went against the 35 percent corporate tax rate then in effect. If were to give one this year, the bonus would only go against the new 21 percent rate. In other words, it was cheaper for businesses to announce bonuses in December than January, suggesting we may not see much of their kind again. 

But Comcast and AT&T in particular serve as the poster children for dishonesty in this matter. Because around the same time that they made a big show of rewarding employees with bonuses, both companies quietly engaged in layoffs. Comcast fired 500 members of its sales department before Christmas, and AT&T is eliminating “thousands” of jobs, according to its union, the Communications Workers of America. “We believe there's more than 4,000 people AT&T has (notified of layoffs) across the country,” Larry Robbins, vice president of CWA Local 4900, told the Indianapolis Daily Star.

Just to do the math on this, $1,000 bonuses to 200,000 AT&T workers is $200 million. Cancelling 4,000 jobs at the median US compensation of $59,000 per year (some of the workers affected likely earned less) would actually amount to a higher number, and unlike the bonuses, those layoffs are permanent. More to the point, any $1,000 bonus for workers is a drop in the ocean compared to chopping the corporate tax rate by 40 percent, as the Trump tax cuts will. AT&T, according to calculations from economist Dean Baker, will see $2.4 billion in annual savings from that tax cut, more than ten times the likely cost of its the one-time bonus. (Neither Comcast nor AT&T immediately responded to a request for comment.)

Also keep in mind that as Wal-Mart handed out bonuses, and promised a wage increase, they also suddenly closed Sam's Clubs all over the country, including every single one up here in Alaska.

Donald Trump is going to lie about all of this during his State of the Union speech, which is yet another reason I will most likely be watching Netflix instead.

The good news, Wal-Mart is giving out $1,000 bonuses to some employees and raising their minimum wage to $11.00. The bad news, they are closing 63 of their Sam's Club stores, including all of those in Alaska.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Walmart has announced that it will lay off thousands of workers across the country as it closes dozens of Sam's Club locations. 

The announcement comes on the same day the retail giant announced it was raising its starting minimum wage for new employees to $11 an hour. 

The company told Business Insider that 63 Sam's Club stores will close. 

Some locations reportedly stopped business suddenly on Thursday without giving advance warning to employees.

Along with the higher minimum wage, Walmart announced earlier Thursday that it would expand parental leave and give some employees one-time bonuses of up to $1,000 following the passage of the GOP tax overhaul.

Well that last part's nice, you know for those Wal-Mart employees who managed to keep their jobs.

Ironically the announcement about the store closings only happened after Paul Ryan made these remarks:  

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) praised Walmart's gesture to raise its employees' wages on Thursday, calling the tax bill a major help to middle-income families. 

"Today marks 20 days since the Tax Cut and Jobs Act became the law of the land," Ryan said. "Already, this new law is helping to improve the lives of middle-income families across the country. You saw the announcement from Walmart just this morning: more than a million Americans are due to receive their bonuses because of tax reform."

You know if this weren't so damn pathetic it would almost be funny.

I first learned about this when I received a text yesterday informing me that all of the Alaska Sam's Club locations had suddenly locked their doors.

Courtesy of KTVA: 

All Sam’s Club locations in Alaska are closing, as part of an unannounced nationwide rollback of the Walmart-owned wholesale club’s stores. 

KTVA viewer Joe Gerace, owner of the Chevron gas station outside the Dimond Fred Meyer, said he visited an Anchorage Sam’s Club location for before-hours business shopping Thursday and found security officers turning customers away at the door.

Now personally I'm a Costco shopper so this does not directly affect me, but it does mean that suddenly there are a bunch of unemployed Alaskans looking for new jobs.

Michigan woman pulls out firearm during altercation over school supplies in Wal-Mart. But don't worry, she has a valid conceal carry permit.

Courtesy of Slate:  

Back-to-school shopping can be stressful but shoppers at a Walmart in Michigan saw that stress take a violent turn after an argument over a notebook ended with a gun being drawn. It all happened on Monday afternoon as two pairs of women were shopping in the town of Novi, near Detroit. One of them reached for the last notebook on a shelf as did another woman. That invariably led to arguments about who was the rightful owner of that precious notebook and some pushing and shoving ensued. When two women, one aged 46 and the other 32, moved on to hair pulling, the mother of the 20-year-old who was involved in the altercation pulled out a loaded gun.

“She pulled out her firearm and tells them to stop attacking her daughter while pointing the gun at them,” Novi Police Detective Scott Baetens said. “It was a senseless act of violence all the way around.” Police are now working with prosecutors to try to determine whether the woman’s actions could be classified as self-defense. She had a valid concealed gun license. 

Of course the woman who pulled the gun ended up with the notebook because that is how you get what you want in America these days. Apparently.

I can't believe that police are trying to determine whether this is an act of self defense or not.

The woman introduced deadly force into a hair pulling fight.

It should ALWAYS be against the law to threaten to end a person's life over a fucking back to school notebook. Period!

Philadelphia Wal-Mart sued for selling bullets to underage drunk man who then used them in a shooting spree.

Courtesy of Philly.com: 

Robert Jourdain had been drinking for hours before he walked into a Walmart store early in the morning of July 5 and bought a box of .38-caliber ammunition, court papers say. 

Shortly before 3 a.m., Jourdain, then 20, left the Northampton Crossings shopping center in Lower Nazareth Township and got into the white Mercedes Benz sport utility vehicle where Todd West was waiting with a Smith & Wesson revolver. Within an hour, West allegedly used the bullets to kill three people in a random shooting spree on the streets of Easton and Allentown. 

The victims' families have filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia against Walmart that one expert says could succeed despite federal protections for gun and ammo dealers. The families claim Walmart and its employees were negligent in selling the ammunition to Jourdain because they should have known he was too young to buy it legally and was mentally impaired by alcohol. 

"The bottom line here is that Walmart sold .38-caliber handgun ammunition to an underage person in the middle of the night, and that ammunition was used to kill several people," said Philadelphia attorney Matt Casey, who filed the suit last week. 

Members of my family work in the bar business. If a bartender serves alcohol to a person who is clearly inebriated and then that person is involved in a fatal car accident the bar can be held legally responsible.

Same thing seems reasonable when it comes to selling bullets.

In fact I would like to see similar laws in place not only about alcohol, but also concerning a person who is clearly agitated, making verbal threats, or appearing in any other way unhinged or potentially dangerous.

After all these are bullets they are selling people, not baby aspirin.

Woman uses meth and then rides a motorized cart through Wal-Mart eating chicken and drinking wine. Do I even have to tell you it happened in Florida?

Courtesy of WFLA:  

A woman ate sushi, cinnamon rolls and the majority of a rotisserie chicken, drinking wine while driving a motorized shopping cart at a Walmart, according to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office. She was arrested for shoplifting and other charges. 

It happened at the Lecanto Walmart Tuesday. Citrus deputies responded after the store loss prevention employee contacted them about an alleged shoplifter he had in custody. The employee told deputies that he had noticed the woman acting suspiciously driving the motorized shopping card. 

He could see a half-empty bottle of wine in her cart. He also said he watched her grab a box of sushi from the shelf, eat a piece and put the box back. She did the same with cinnamon rolls and mini muffins. He saw her eat the majority of a rotisserie chicken while on the shopping floor.

Overall the woman, aged 20, manged to consume $32.36 worth of food and wine.

Now see THIS is why I stopped shopping at Wal-Mart.

At first I was not sure it was Florida. After all nobody even got shot. 

Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama round out the top three for Black Friday brawls.

Courtesy of WRCB: 

Arkansas and Tennessee top the list for Black Friday fights. Arkansas tops the list at number one, followed by Tennessee and Alabama. Missouri ranks in at number 5. 

Shoppers love saving money, but when it comes to Black Friday, some Midsoutherners go to extreme measures to get those hot items. Experts said there is a way to save money while staying safe.

Yes there is a way to save money and stay safe, DON'T go shopping on Black Friday. (More brawls here.)

Wait until Cyber Monday, that way you still get great deals and you can shop in your pajamas from home.

Who wouldn't rather shop in their pajamas?

Oh wait, I forgot about the Wal-Mart shoppers.

Did anybody else happen to notice that the map up above closely matches this one?

Anybody else completely unsurprised?

Mississippi man blows up Wal-Mart because they stopped selling Confederate battle flags. You're not helping.

Courtesy of the Clarion Ledger:  

A man is charged after allegedly setting off an explosive at a Mississippi Walmart Sunday morning. 

Marshall W. Leonard, 61, of Tupelo, will be charged with placing an explosive device. Under Mississippi Code 97-37-25 he could get life in prison if convicted, the Tupelo Daily Journal reported. 

Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre said a vehicle pulled up to an entrance of the Walmart in North Gloster around 1:30 a.m. 

“A white male got out, lit the package and threw it in the vestibule,” said Aguirre. “There was an employee on break, and the suspect told him, ‘You better run.

The employee did run and the device went off harming no one and doing only minimal damage to the store.

The reason for the attack? I thought you would never ask:

A supporter of the Mississippi flag, Leonard railed against anyone who wanted it removed because it contained the Confederate battle flag. He spoke out against Walmart when the retail giant stop selling items that contained the Confederate battle flag. 

Last Wednesday, Leonard posted threats on the Daily Journal Facebook page. 

“Journal corporate, you are on final warning,” he wrote Oct. 28. “You are part of the problem. As a result of this, y’all are going down, along with Walmart, WTVA, Reeds department store, and all the rest of the anti-American crooks. I’m not kidding. No messing around anymore!”

Nothing says supporters of the Confederate battle flag are non-racist rational people who are only concerned with preserving their Southern heritage like blowing up the local Wal-Mart with a homemade bomb, don'tcha think?

My favorite part is that his tiny little bomb was essentially just as impotent as his ravings on Facebook.

"Y'all are going down."

boom!

"Y'all down yet?"

Mississippi Republican lawmaker proposes removing confederate battle emblem from state flag and Wal-Mart removes Confederate flags from store shelves.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

A top Mississippi lawmaker says the Confederate battle emblem is offensive and needs to be removed from the state flag. 

Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn said Monday that remembering our past is important, "but that does not mean we must let it define us."

And remember this is a top REPUBLICAN calling for this change. 

And now there is news that Wal-Mart is jumping on the bandwagon:  

Wal-Mart said Monday it is removing any items from its store shelves and website that feature the Confederate flag. In a statement, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its goal is to not offend anyone with the products it offers. "We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the Confederate flag from our assortment — whether in our stores or on our website," the company said. "We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly — this is one of those instances."

You know it is not often that I want to be wrong about things, but I  have to admit that when I first started to cover this Confederate flag story I was skeptical that these stubborn southern folks would be willing to change.

But with Nikki Haley calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, and the two changes listed above, it looks like there is a real push by many to move past their historic racist past.

Well if I have to be wrong about something, this is exactly the kind of something that I want to be wrong about.

Well now you've done it Texas! You've become so crazy that even Rick Perry cannot support your lunacy anymore!

Courtesy of The Dallas Morning News:

Former Gov. Rick Perry suggested Tuesday that successor Greg Abbott went too far last week in raising questions about U.S. military exercises in Texas. 

“It’s OK to question your government. I do it on a regular basis. But the military is something else,” said Perry, an Air Force veteran, as he prepared to speak to the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. “Our military is quite trustworthy. The civilian leadership, you can always question that, but not the men and women in uniform.”

Wow! And here I thought that making it so that Wal-Mart had to explain that they were not digging tunnels under their stores to help Obama invade Texas, was the most embarrassing thing that could happen to Texas and its new governor.

But having Rick Perry, a man who seemed to never hear a conspiracy theory that he didn't agree with, come out and call you batshit crazy, well that has GOT to be a wake up call.

Of course now that Perry has insulted his base, I wonder how he expects to have a legitimate chance at the Republican presidential nomination?

After all just because you are not as crazy as the craziest people in your state, certainly does not mean you are not still too crazy for the primary voters.

Wal-Mart is actually forced to make an official statement that there are no tunnels underneath their Texas stores being used by President Obama to take over the state.

Courtesy of TPM: 

"There’s no truth to the rumors," Wal-Mart spokesperson Lorenzo Lopez told TPM via email. 

The tunnels are part of a series of conspiracy theories surrounding "Jade Helm 15," a military training operation set to take place later this year in seven Western states. The conspiracy theorists have said the operation may be part of a covert attempt to takeover Texas and other states. 

In response to the theories, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last week issued an order for the state guard to monitor the U.S. military — a decision he defended on Monday. 

Theorists have suggested that five Wal-Mart retail locations were shuttered abruptly because of Jade Helm 15. They have suggested that the closed stores, one of which is located in Texas, will serve as "food distribution centers" and will be used to "house the headquarters of invading troops from China, here to disarm Americans one by one." 

Another theory suggested that there was already a system of underground tunnels below the closed Wal-Marts.

Whoa Nelly Texans are stupid. 

I mean if you are relying on Wal-Mart to be the voice of reason for your state, you really have a serious problem.

Last night Jon Stewart rather hilariously addressed this ridiculous conspiracy theory as well.

Mormon sidewalk band turns Arizona Wal-Mart parking lot into the OK Corral.

Courtesy of Facebook

From Raw Story:  

The suspects in a fatal brawl with police outside an Arizona Wal-Mart have been identified as a family from Idaho who had apparently been living in a vehicle in the store’s parking lot for days before the melee, authorities said on Tuesday. 

Five adults and one juvenile were booked on multiple charges stemming from the fight that erupted late on Saturday in Cottonwood after police responded to a report that a female Wal-Mart employee was assaulted by multiple suspects. 

Police said the officers were immediately attacked by the suspects in the parking lot and that during the fracas, 21-year-old Enoch Gaver was shot and killed, while his brother David Gaver, 28, was shot in the abdomen.

One police officer, 31-year-old Sergeant Jeremy Daniels, was also shot and remains in a hospital in Flagstaff, about 45 miles away. Daniels, a 10-year veteran of the Cottonwood Police Department, is expected to make a full recovery.

Several of the family members were arrested for Aggravated Assault and Attempted Homicide, including the parents, three of their children (All in their late twenties.), and an unidentified juvenile.

Here is the part that I found particularly interesting:

Several of the Gavers were sidewalk musicians who perform in a Mormon band called Matthew 24 Now.

Mormon street musicians who engage in shootouts with the police? Whatever happened to riding their bikes in a suit and tie and going overseas to proselytize to the French?

But what am I saying? This is Arizona.

Apparently in Arizona even the Mormon street musicians are packing heat.

I'm not sure, but I don't think this is how you become a god and get your own planet.

Two year old accidentally shoots woman with her own gun. Sadly she was killed and therefore unable to return fire.

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

A two-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed a woman after he reached into her purse at a northern Idaho Walmart and her concealed gun fired, authorities said Tuesday. 

The woman was shopping with several children, and it is unclear how they are related, Kootenai County sheriff’s spokesman Stu Miller said. Authorities originally said the boy was the woman’s son. 

The woman, whose identity was not released, had a concealed weapons permit. 

Miller said the shooting was accidental and occurred in the Walmart in Hayden, Idaho, a town about 40 miles northeast of Spokane, Washington.

First off a woman who carries a concealed weapon while out with a bunch of children deserves to be shot.  I know that sounds insensitive but since one of the alternatives is that a child is shot, I stand by my statement.

Secondly have you ever noticed just how many people are shot in Wal-Mart these days?

And thirdly this is just another example of having guns on your person placing you and your loved ones in more, not less, danger.

I feel badly for this two year old child, and the other children who were there to witness this.

But once again I am finding it impossible to feel badly for this woman.

Rage inducing video of the day. Girlfriend of man shot to death in an Ohio Wal-Mart threatened with jail for not admitting that she knew he had a gun before entering the store. He did not.

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

Police aggressively questioned the tearful girlfriend of a young black man they had just shot dead as he held a BB gun in an Ohio supermarket – accusing her of lying, threatening her with jail, and suggesting that she was high on drugs. 

Tasha Thomas was reduced to swearing on the lives of her relatives that John Crawford III had not been carrying a firearm when they entered the Walmart in Beavercreek, near Dayton, to buy crackers, marshmallows and chocolate bars on the evening of 5 August. 

“You lie to me and you might be on your way to jail,” detective Rodney Curd told Thomas, as she wept and repeatedly offered to take a lie-detector test. After more than an hour and a half of questioning and statement-taking, Curd finally told Thomas that Crawford, 22, had died. “As a result of his actions, he is gone,” said the detective, as she slumped in her chair and cried. 

For the record John Crawford III was NOT armed when he entered that Wal-Mart. 

He only had a BB gun in his possession when he was shot.

This poor woman was on the phone with him when the police opened fire on him.
A 94-minute police video recording, released to the Guardian by the office of Mike DeWine, the Ohio attorney general, in response to a public records request, shows Thomas, 26, being interviewed by Curd after she was driven from Walmart to the Beavercreek police department. Curd later told investigators he had not yet been told Crawford only had a BB gun that had been on sale at the store. 

Curd promptly asked Thomas whether she and Crawford had criminal records. Already tearful and breathless, Thomas explained that she may have had some traffic offences and had been arrested for petty theft as a juvenile. 

The detective then became increasingly aggressive and banged on the table between them with his hand. “Tell me where he got the gun from,” Curd repeated. Thomas insisted Crawford had been carrying only a white plastic grocery bag when they arrived at Walmart to buy the ingredients to make s’mores at a family cook-out. 

Asked one of several times whether Crawford owned a gun, Thomas said: “Not that I know.” 

Curd told her: “Don’t tell me ‘not that you know’, because that’s the first thing I realise somebody’s not telling me the truth”. 

He later repeated: “You need to tell me the truth” and “You need to be truthful.” 

I have to question the fact that his officer claims that he did not know the murdered man only had a BB gun on him. Either he is lying to save face, or else he should never have been in that room interrogating this poor woman with no knowledge of what actually took place.

To me it appears that Detective Curd is trying to get her to say hEr boyfriend was armed in order to provide an excuse for officers to have executed him in that fashion.

When she fails to do so his anger is apparent.

Personally I am disgusted by this.

Grand jury finds shooting of man in Ohio Wal-Mart by local police justified. Video tape would very much like to disagree. Update!

Courtesy of Fox News:  

Officers' actions were justified in the fatal shooting of a man holding an air rifle inside an Ohio Wal-Mart store, a grand jury determined Wednesday -- using surveillance video the slain man's family said shows the shooting was completely unjustified. 

The Greene County grand jury opted not to issue any indictments in the Aug. 5 death of 22-year-old John Crawford III inside a Wal-Mart in Beavercreek, Special Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said. 

A 911 caller reported Crawford was waving what appeared to be a rifle in the store. Police said he was killed after failing to obey commands to put down what turned out to be an air rifle taken from a shelf.

He "was killed after failing to obey commands?"

Really?

Well here is a newly released video tape of the shooting, so you tell me when this man had time to respond to the police before thee started shooting.

I quite literally hear the police tell him to either "get down" or "put it down" and then they open fire.

This from HuffPo: 

Police have said multiple times that Crawford refused commands to drop the air rifle, according to the Dayton Daily News. The surveillance video, obtained by the Xenia Daily Gazette, appears to show Crawford shot almost immediately after police encounter him.

Yeah that's what I saw as well. The man simply did not have time to respond to police and they gunned him down. 

From the tape it is clear that Crawford was not thinking of the object in his hand as a gun, and as he spoke on his cell phone he is seen moving it around in a manner that could easily make some shoppers, who did not recognize it as an air rifle, nervous.

But the actions of the police in this matter simply did not seem justified in that he had made no threats, and did not point the toy at any shoppers in a threatening manner.

However before you despair know that despite this finding the police may not walk away scott free: 

The Justice Department said Wednesday it will launch an investigation into the shooting death of a black man inside an Ohio Wal-Mart, just hours after a local grand jury voted not to indict the white police officer who shot him. 

Immediately after Wednesday's grand jury decision, the city of Beavercreek publicly requested that the FBI review the officers’ actions to determine if there were any civil rights violations.

If by "civil rights violations" they mean filled him with holes before he had a chance to explain himself, then yeah I think the FBI has a case. 

I'm sorry but I am having an almost impossible time believing that if John Crawford III had been some white dude screwing around with an air rifle in Wal-Mart that his family would have been notified to come and identify his body at the morgue.

Update: If you in any way think that cops shooting black men for no good reason is a rarity in this country, then you might want to take a look at this tape of a recent traffic stop.

Once again, a white man would have walked away unscathed.

Attorney says newly released video of man shot in Ohio Wal-Mart while holding pellet gun, shows police "shot on sight."

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Police claim Crawford ignored their commands to drop the weapon, and the former Marine who called in the report and witnessed the shooting said Crawford “looked like he was going to go violently.” 

But attorney Michael Wright said surveillance video from the incident, which Ohio’s attorney general allowed him to watch with Crawford’s family, contradicted those accounts. 

“John was doing nothing wrong in Walmart, nothing more, nothing less than shopping,” Wright said. 

The attorney said surveillance video showed Crawford facing away from officers, talking on the phone, and leaning on the pellet gun like a cane when he was “shot on sight” in a “militaristic” response by police.

When I first covered this story last Friday, a lot of you blamed the victim and accepted the police version that he was being defiant was seen loading the weapon.

Now it turns out that he was doing none of those things: 


Wright said the family objected to the piecemeal release of evidence, such as dispatch audio and video on the day of the shooting, was biased toward the police. 

“Everything released is one-sided,” Wright said. “There is nothing favorable to John Crawford. You can’t show different pieces, show it all, don’t trickle pieces to gain favor of the public.” 

He said the video suggests Crawford probably did not see or hear officers as they arrived. 

Crawford was speaking by cell phone to his girlfriend, who was with his parents, when he was shot. 

“He said he was at the video games playing videos, and he went over there by the toy section where the toy guns were,” said LeeCee Johnson, the mother of his two children. “The next thing I know, he said, ‘It’s not real,’ and the police start shooting, and they said ‘Get on the ground,’ but he was already on the ground because they had shot him.” 

Johnson put the phone on speaker mode, and she and Crawford’s parents heard him die. 

“I could hear him just crying and screaming,” Johnson said. “I feel like they shot him down like he was not even human.”

I think that we are getting to the point now that when we hear of a black man being shot by the police, we should almost automatically take their report of the incident with a grain of salt.

I have long been somebody who usually took the police at their word, even though I am aware that there are bad cops in the world, but now I am far less likely to give them the benefit of the doubt.

P.S. I almost forgot, but Ohio is an open carry state.

Which means that it is quite likely that if this were a white man, in the exact same circumstance, the entire incident would have played out differently, and there would have been NO loss of life.

Ohio man shot dead by police in Wal-Mart while holding toy rifle.

Courtesy of WSOCTV:  

An Ohio man is dead after police are called into a Walmart for reports of a man walking through the store with a rifle. It turns out, a law enforcement source for WHIO said, that it wasn't a real gun but a toy, either a BB or pellet gun, that he had opened at the store Tuesday night. 

WHIO reported a couple were in the hardware department when they saw John Crawford walking past them with a rifle pointed toward the sky. They followed Crawford through the store as they called 911 and warned other shoppers to stay away. 

One witness, Ronald Ritchie said Crawford "was just waving it at children and people. Items.... I couldn't hear anything that he was saying. I'm thinking that he is either going to rob the place or he's there to shoot somebody else." The man looked kind of serious, Ronald Ritchie said. "He didn't really want to be looked at and when people did look at him, he was pointing the gun at them. He was pointing at people, children walking by." 

Ritchie said he wasn't pointing it as if he was going to shoot, but waving it in their direction. 

The couple didn't know police had arrived until they saw four or five officers appear in the pet section, where Crawford was standing. 

"I heard, 'put it down, put it down,' " April Ritchie said. "I heard two shots after I saw him turn. He still had the weapon in his hand." 

The Ritchies said the man fell backward when he was hit by the gunfire, but got back up and went toward the officer who shot him. That officer then tackled the man. Officers then handcuffed him and turned him on his back, Ronald Ritchie said. 

So here's the thing.

John Crawford

John Crawford, who happens to be black, gets gunned down while carrying a toy gun through Wal-Mart, but white Ammosexual assholes can walk around carrying totally real, loaded AR-15's and nobody unloads a clip into them?

Here is more from Raw Story:

The mother of Crawford’s children said she was speaking to him by cell phone when he was confronted by police in the store. 

“He said he was at the video games playing videos, and he went over there by the toy section where the toy guns were,” said LeeCee Johnson. “The next thing I know, he said, ‘It’s not real,’ and the police start shooting, and they said ‘Get on the ground,’ but he was already on the ground because they had shot him.” 

“I could hear him just crying and screaming,” Johnson said. “I feel like they shot him down like he was not even human.” 

Ohio’s attorney general, who was asked by Beavercreek police to investigate the case, confirmed Crawford was holding a MK-177 (.177 caliber) BB/Pellet Rifle when he was shot to death.

So it appears that Crawford was killed for carrying an item through the store that he found while shopping IN the store.  There is something truly fucked up about that.

Now eyewitness reports suggest that Crawford appeared to be attempting to load the weapon, and did not comply with the police when they asked him to drop it, however I still cannot get over the feeling that if his skin had been lighter he would have walked away from this incident unscathed.

Sovereign citizen couple murder two police officers in Nevada. Possible links to white supremacy and the Bundy Ranch. Update!

Officer Alyn Beck, 41, and Officer Igor Soldo, 31.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

One of the shooters who ambushed two Las Vegas police officers and shot them to death at a pizzeria yelled “This is the start of a revolution!” before firing, witnesses told police. 

The man and woman then sprayed bullets at a nearby Walmart, gunning down a third person, before killing themselves in an apparent suicide pact, authorities said. 

The officers were eating lunch Sunday at a Cici’s Pizza when the shooters approached. Authorities said they stripped the dead officers of their weapons and ammunition before going across the street to continue the spree.

It was clear that the two shooters targeted the police officers, but why?

Here is more from the New York Daily News:  

The shooters are thought to be a married couple in their late 20s who were new to the Las Vegas Valley, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Police are reportedly investigating links to the white supremacy movement, having found swastika symbols during their initial investigation. 

One of them shouted, “This is the start of a revolution,” before killing one of the officers execution style as they refilled a soda, reports the Review-Journal. 

The second officer was shot several times by the female shooter, but he returned fire, Gillespie said at a press conference. The officer later died at a local hospital while in surgery. Their bodies were escorted by a police motorcade to the coroner's office. 

The killers stripped the officers’ of their weapons and ammunition, before covering the officers with something that featured the Gadsden flag, a yellow banner with a coiled snake above the words, “Don’t tread on Me," according to the Review-Journal. 

The flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a Revolutionary War general and statesman, in 1775. It was adopted as the symbol of the Tea Party Movement in 2009. 

Gadsden flag

The two sovereign citizens then went into a nearby Wal-Mart where they killed another man who may have attempted to stop them with his concealed weapon (So much for a good guy with a gun stopping bad guys with guns.), before exchanging gunfire with the police, and eventually retreating to the back of the store where they killed themselves.

Now if you are picking up on the fact that his happened in Nevada, with two people identified as "sovereign citizens," and wondering if there might be a connection to recent events on the Bundy Ranch, well give yourself a gold star.

Courtesy of the Review-Journal:

The shooters were a married couple thought to be in their late 20s who were new to the Las Vegas Valley, according to a law enforcement official close to the investigation. Police are looking into their links to the white supremacy movement and found swastika symbols during their initial investigation. 

Residents of the Bruce Street apartment complex gathered outside the building to talk about the couple whose unit was being searched. 

Several neighbors identified the man as Jared, while one called the woman Amanda. 

Like many of the neighbors contacted, Krista Koch said she didn’t know the couple’s last names. She described them as “militant.” They talked about planning to kill police officers, “going underground” and not coming out until the time was right to kill. 

Brandon Monroe, 22, has lived in the complex for about two weeks. He said the man who lived in the apartment that was being searched often rambled about conspiracy theories. He often wore camouflage or dressed as Peter Pan to work as a Fremont Street Experience street performer. A woman lived with him, Monroe said, but he didn’t see her as often. 

They were weird people, Monroe said, adding that he thought the couple used methamphetamines.  

The man told Monroe he had been kicked off Cliven Bundy’s ranch 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas while people from throughout the U.S. gathered there in protest of a Bureau of Land Management roundup of Bundy’s cattle.

Kind of makes sense in way. After all the Bundy standoff brought all kinds of nuts out of the  woodwork to congregate in a place where they felt their anti-government, and racist attitudes would be welcome.

But where did they go after? 

Of course you know that the gun nuts and Bundy supporters are going to quickly identify this as a "false flag" operation by the government to undermine the 2nd Amendment and smear those who participated in the Bundy Ranch standoff right?

Oh yeah, count on it.

Update: You know if these two had not offed themselves they might have received a hosting slot on Fox News. They are certainly well within their demographic.

Update 2: What did I say?

Gun dropped in Wal-Mart barely misses newborn, wings mother. Just another example of the 2nd Amendment keeping us safe.

Courtesy of WBIW:  

A Clifford woman was hit by a bullet Saturday night while shopping at the westside Walmart in Columbus. That's according to a report from The Republic. 

Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde was at the store at about 8 p.m. Saturday night when he heard a gunshot. Rohde told The Republic that 56-year-old Tony E. Ward of Columbus had been carrying a .22 pistol in a holster on his waistband. The gun fell from his waist and discharged. 

The bullet went through a soda bottle in a cart and struck the right arm of 26-year-old Virginia Thompson, who was pushing her newborn baby when the gun went off. The bullet hit the outside of Thompson's arm and after treatment by paramedics she declined to be taken to the hospital.

Of course the man had a permit for his gun so there was no arrest.

After all this is the price for living in America. Every once in a while you have to avoid incoming gunfire.

And remember kids, guns don't kill people, they only barely miss their child and wound them in the arm when dropped.

Salvation Army bell ringer gets assaulted for saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

Courtesy of WCPO Cincinnati:  

Some might call it the “December Debate.” Do you greet people with “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays?" An Arizona woman, who’s also a bell ringer for the Salvation Army, says she was assaulted for choosing the wrong one. 

Kristina Vindiola says a woman hit her outside a Phoenix Walmart after she said "Happy Holidays." 

"The lady looked at me,” said Vindiola. “I thought she was going to put money in the kettle. She came up to me and said, 'Do you believe in God?' And she says, ‘You're supposed to say Merry Christmas,' and that's when she hit me." 

Vindiola says the woman hit her in the arm and then went inside the store.

WTF? Since when did the Republican "War on Inclusive Christmas" turn physical?

And what kind of a self identified Christian thinks it is okay to strike another human being simply for demonstrating religious tolerance? Do these people have any understanding of Jesus whatsoever?

That lady should take legal action. And she is.

....the bell ringer who said she was assaulted now plans to take legal action. 

"She should've just been happy I said 'Happy Holidays,' but I got hit because I didn't say 'Merry Christmas,'" Vindiola said.

Good for her!

Now if we can just find some way to make this Sarah Palin's fault.

Rather than pay their employees a living wage McDonald's suggests employees trying to stay out of debt pack a sack lunch and sell unwanted possessions on eBay. McPerfect!

Courtesy of NBC News:

McDonald’s is once again getting grilled over its employee advice, this time suggesting ways to get out of holiday debt that include returning unopened purchases and bringing a sack lunch. 

The criticism comes months after it took heat over an employee budget guide that included no money for heat and $20 a month for health care. 

The labor advocacy group Low Pay Is Not OK is lambasting McDonald’s for articles on an employee website that suggest workers visit thrift stores instead of the mall, use stale bread and bruised apples rather than throwing them out, and “quit complaining” as a way to reduce stress. And to pay off holiday debt, it suggested returning purchases. 

“On a short term basis, do whatever it takes to dig out from your holiday debt,” said one article on the McResource Line website, a screen grab of which was provided by Low Pay Is Not OK. 

“You may want to consider returning some of your unopened purchases that may not seem as appealing as they did. Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash," it continued. “Consider bringing a brown bag lunch and skipping the takeout …. You might also consider a temporary part time job to dig out of debt quickly.” 

The article appeared to have been removed from the site by midday Thursday. 

McDonald’s did not return multiple calls for comment. A company spokeswoman, in a statement emailed to CNBC, said Low Pay Is Not OK’s video about the website took the advice out of context and characterized the campaign as “an attempt by an outside organization to undermine a well-intended employee assistance resource website.”

Yes they are only trying to McHelp without having to McPay more.

After all how do you post profits of over five billion dollars annually if you are paying your workers enough to live on?

By the way I completely stopped going to McDonald's several months ago and have no intention of ever going back. Not only is their McFood poisonous, but they are also cheap bastards more interested in turning a profit than in paying their employees,

Kind of reminds me of Wal-Mart who held a food drive asking their employees to donate food to help feed their fellow employees who are not paid enough to feed themselves.

Yet another place that I refuse to shop at any more.