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Nuclear Event in USA on Monday, 13 February, 2012 at 04:16 (04:16 AM) UTC.
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RSOE EDIS Event Report: Tenessee USA - NUCLEAR EVENT - February 13, 2012
Nuclear agency to probe Pilgrim nuke shutdown
Nuclear agency to probe Pilgrim nuke shutdown
Nuclear agency to probe Pilgrim nuke shutdownTue May 17, 2011 10:04 am | about: ETR NEWS PROVIDED BY: McClatchy May 17--
The federal agency that oversees nuclear power plants in the United States has sent a special inspection team to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth to investigate an unplanned shutdown there last week. The nuclear reactor was being brought back online May 10 after a refueling operation when human error caused it to automatically shut down, according to an Entergy Corp. official. Entergy runs the Plymouth plant, which is the only commercial nuclear power plant operating in Massachusetts. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Monday that it had sent a three-member special inspection team to the plant to "review plant operator performance and decision-making, the effectiveness of Entergy's response to the event and corrective actions taken by the company to date." "There were no immediate safety implications associated with the unplanned shutdown," NRC Region I Administrator Bill Dean said in a statement released by the agency. "Nevertheless, we want to gain a better understanding of exactly why the shutdown occurred, what role human performance issues may have played in the event and the steps being taken by the company to learn from this event and prevent it from happening again in the future."
Before the shutdown, plant operators were withdrawing control rods to increase the rate of nuclear fission and to add heat to the reactor, according to the NRC. Plant operators detected a "higher-than-expected heat-up rate," and in attempting to achieve a more reasonable rate they took actions that caused the emergency shutdown, according to the NRC. Entergy spokeswoman Carol Wightman declined to comment on whether any personnel had been disciplined following the unplanned shutdown. Because of competitive concerns, Wightman could not say when the plant might be back in operation. "We will work with the NRC's special inspection team to provide any information related to this human performance error," she wrote in an email to the Times. A report on the team's findings will be issued within 45 days after the inspection is complete, NRC officials said. Special inspections rare The NRC rarely sends the special inspection teams out to the country's 104 nuclear plants, agency spokesman Neil Sheehan said. In 2010, nine such teams were dispatched, he said. The team arrives at Pilgrim on the heels of a second aborted attempt to restart the plant over the weekend.
The plant was operating at about 14 percent power on Friday while conducting tests during startup procedures when operators observed a problem with pressure between a dry well around the reactor and a water reservoir at the bottom of the reactor building, according to Wightman. "To investigate the cause of the pressure differential, operators safely shut the plant down early Saturday morning, and we remain offline, continuing with our investigation," Wightman wrote. While the weekend shutdown will be reviewed as part of the NRC investigation, it was unclear whether it will be considered an unplanned shutdown, since operators took the action purposefully, Sheehan said. The special inspection team will focus on the May 10 shutdown, he said. Deficient pressure levels in the dry well around the reactor caused the problem that led to the shutdown over the weekend, said David Lochbaum, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Nuclear Safety Project. The pressure differential between the dry well and a doughnut-shaped vessel partially filled with water at the bottom of the reactor building is meant to lower water levels in a series of pipes connecting the two areas, Lochbaum said. The lower water levels in these pipes act to decrease potential stresses on the reservoir, he said. "They think it's a valve that's partially open," Lochbaum said of the pressure problem. Danger minimized Last week's emergency shutdown, although a result of human error, did not appear serious, Lochbaum said. "In any event the automatic safety systems worked," he said. "While things were trending in a bad direction for a while it wasn't like we were 30 seconds or 30 minutes away from a disaster." Pilgrim and other nuclear plants around the world have faced increased scrutiny over safety issues since an earthquake and tsunami in Japan led to an ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
The Plymouth plant's operating license expires in 2012, and Entergy's request to extend the license for another 20 years is pending before the NRC. Even if the NRC does not complete its review on the plant's license renewal, Pilgrim will be allowed to operate until a decision is made, Sheehan said. Advocates for more oversight of safety issues at nuclear plants argue that the crisis in Japan has raised serious concerns for plants in the United States, especially ones such as Pilgrim, which is the same type as the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., has asked that the NRC suspend all pending license decisions until the safety lessons and environmental consequences related to the Japanese nuclear crisis can be addressed. In a letter sent to the NRC May 13, Markey highlighted the May 10 shutdown of Pilgrim as another example of the "fragility of our nuclear power plants and the need to ensure that the highest possible safety standards are required and maintained." The NRC continues its review of safety measures at U.S. nuclear plants in the wake of the Japanese nuclear crisis but does not plan to hold up pending license decisions, Sheehan said.
___ To see more of the Cape Cod Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.capecodonline.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544)
(vid) Prison For Your Mind : Channel 44connected
Quotes from the video:
"You have the look of a man who accepts what he see's because he is expecting to wake up."
"There is a reason education sucks, it is the same reason that will never ever ever be fixed ....because the owners of this country don't want that. The real owners, the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions...."
"They own the politicians that are put there to make you think you have freedom of choice. YOU DON'T. You have no choice, you have owners, they own you, they own everything, they own all the important land, they own and control the corporations they have long since bought and paid for the the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they've got the judges in their back pocket, and they own all the big media and news organizations, they control just about everything you hear, they have got you by the balls. "
YOU ARE THE 99%
"You have the look of a man who accepts what he see's because he is expecting to wake up."
"There is a reason education sucks, it is the same reason that will never ever ever be fixed ....because the owners of this country don't want that. The real owners, the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions...."
"They own the politicians that are put there to make you think you have freedom of choice. YOU DON'T. You have no choice, you have owners, they own you, they own everything, they own all the important land, they own and control the corporations they have long since bought and paid for the the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they've got the judges in their back pocket, and they own all the big media and news organizations, they control just about everything you hear, they have got you by the balls. "
YOU ARE THE 99%
(vid) WAKE UP : Bill Cooper recordings 1993-1996
Milton William Cooper (May 6, 1943 -- November 6, 2001) was an American writer, shortwave broadcaster, conspiracy theorist, and political activist.
Quotes from the video:
"I think you need to start examining yourself, your agenda, your mission, who are you, what are you about, what do you believe about america, is it true? Are you helping to divide us more or are you helping to bring us together?"
"Do you really understand what this country is all about? The constitution is this country. Destroy it and this country ceases to exist instantly."
"These men (who control our country) belong to all different races, all different nationalities, all different religions to the puiblic point of view, but in secret it's a different story..... Their whole purpose throughout history has been to teach a small number of people how to become adept at controlling everyone else. Their goal is to destroy all existing images, save theirs. All existing governments, save theirs, and shackle the mob in a system of eternal oppressive debt chained to a computer for the rest of their life in a propagandized rule to make them believe that they are happy in this system."
you are the 99% - we are the 99%
Energy State Politicians Holding The World Hostage To Pollution
Energy State Politicians Holding The World Hostage To Pollution
In the United States, Democratic leaders in the Senate in July 2010 gave up on reaching even a scaled-down climate bill, in the face of opposition from Republicans and some energy-state Democrats. The House had passed a broad cap-and-trade bill in 2009.
Who does this small group of really rich, powerful people think they are in making the choice to continue polluting? How could this small group of people have more to say about what we all use for fuel than all of the rest of us in the world put together?
Our founding fathers would roll over in their graves if they knew what our politicians are doing to our people and our Earth today.
With unemployment as high as it is (and tens of thousands of troops havn't returned home yet.)... therefore unemployment will only get worse: This is actually a really good time to abandon fossil fuels and build a Green Infrastructure, just like with the "The New Deal".
"The New Deal was supported by Three Presidents. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson."
The New Deal got us out of the depression and America's prosperity lasted until the end of the 1970's when the Republicans regained the majority. The New Deal worked then, and something like it will work now.
Focusing america's resources on building wind and solar power plants, and upgrading our supply grid (most of which are relics of the 1950's and need upgrading anyway.) will decrease unemployment.
Veterans often get an advantage in the job market as a reward for their service to the country. America as a community should give similiar job market advantages to workers in the fossil fuel industries who want to start a new career in another industry.
The environmental situation is critical. Global warming, air pollution, poisoned well water, toxic spills, explosions, and accidents that cost the lives of American workers in the oil, gas, and coal business need to be relegated to the history books as obsolete industries, and our politicians have a duty to society to see that this happens.
If politicians that represent energy states don't have the where-with-all to steer their states into the green energy sector, clean up their backyards, and create green energy jobs, then they need to step down, or get knocked down. America, as a whole community should demand a true green energy initiative from our government.
In the United States, Democratic leaders in the Senate in July 2010 gave up on reaching even a scaled-down climate bill, in the face of opposition from Republicans and some energy-state Democrats. The House had passed a broad cap-and-trade bill in 2009.
Who does this small group of really rich, powerful people think they are in making the choice to continue polluting? How could this small group of people have more to say about what we all use for fuel than all of the rest of us in the world put together?
Our founding fathers would roll over in their graves if they knew what our politicians are doing to our people and our Earth today.
With unemployment as high as it is (and tens of thousands of troops havn't returned home yet.)... therefore unemployment will only get worse: This is actually a really good time to abandon fossil fuels and build a Green Infrastructure, just like with the "The New Deal".
"The New Deal was supported by Three Presidents. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson."
The New Deal got us out of the depression and America's prosperity lasted until the end of the 1970's when the Republicans regained the majority. The New Deal worked then, and something like it will work now.
Focusing america's resources on building wind and solar power plants, and upgrading our supply grid (most of which are relics of the 1950's and need upgrading anyway.) will decrease unemployment.
Veterans often get an advantage in the job market as a reward for their service to the country. America as a community should give similiar job market advantages to workers in the fossil fuel industries who want to start a new career in another industry.
The environmental situation is critical. Global warming, air pollution, poisoned well water, toxic spills, explosions, and accidents that cost the lives of American workers in the oil, gas, and coal business need to be relegated to the history books as obsolete industries, and our politicians have a duty to society to see that this happens.
If politicians that represent energy states don't have the where-with-all to steer their states into the green energy sector, clean up their backyards, and create green energy jobs, then they need to step down, or get knocked down. America, as a whole community should demand a true green energy initiative from our government.
Opposing the U.S. Government Could Lead To Deportation, even if you are born here.
Senate Bill Authorizes Feds To Revoke Citizenship Of Americans
January 16, 2012 By
Introduced by Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman and Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown, S 1698, the “Enemy Expatriation Act,” is a simple, 2 page document which offers apparently innocent amendments and additions to existing federal legislation. (1)
That legislation, known as Title 8, “…outlines the role of aliens and nationality in the U.S. Code.” And it is just one small piece of this massive and complex law which the Enemy Expatriation Act seeks to modify, that being Section 349, the means by which “a person who is a national of the United States whether by birth or naturalization, shall lose his nationality…,” that is, his citizenship. (2)
To be sure, most of us would be in favor of revoking American citizenship if it has been improperly, perhaps surreptitiously attained by Muslim terrorists who have entered the United States only to commit acts of violence and murder.
But it’s necessary to remember who we are dealing with in Washington, DC. To Janet Napolitano and her Department of Homeland Security, it is Libertarians, soldiers returning from combat, gun owners, militia members, devout believers in the Constitution and those who loudly mistrust and criticize the federal government (Occupiers and Anons) who are the true threats of “engaging in hostilities against the United States.” Perhaps not coincidentally it is also members of these groups who are the most vocal critics of the Obama Administration!
And as the Obama Regime considers each of these individuals a potential domestic terrorist, how long will it be until a member of one of these “highly suspect” groups is conveniently accused of “materially supporting hostilities against the United States?”
Much of this language should sound quite familiar, for it is taken directly from the recently enacted National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. There was great concern surrounding the authority given the President by this law to imprison American citizens without trial or charge if he should consider them enemies who present a danger to the United States and its people. And, just as the President is granted that authority by the NDAA, should the Enemy Expatriation Act pass both the House and Senate, he will ALSO have the authority to revoke their citizenship. (3)
Isn’t it odd that, no so long ago, the left was adamant about GRANTING to Muslim terrorists in Guantanamo the rights of American citizens—rights to a lawyer, Miranda rights of silence, and the right to a speedy trial before a jury! Yet with the signing into law of senate bill 1698, those same rights, indeed American citizenship itself, could be revoked from any one of “We the people!”
The election is only months away. Regardless who wins it, the “legal” destruction of our natural rights as citizens of the United States by Barack Hussein Obama or any other president must NOT be permitted.
Further reading:
http://www.asil.org/insights091020.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_8_of_the_United_States_Code
http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/terrorism/sjres23.es.html
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002385—-000-.html
http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_778.html
http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_781.html
Hillary Clinton and Obama Welcome Global Gun Ban
"SO ONLY THE GOVERNMENT HAS THE GUNS,
CITIZENS CANNOT RESIST UNJUST LAWS"
U.S. Troops May Stay In Afghanistan Until 2024 ~ The Telegraph
U.S. Troops May Stay In Afghanistan Until 2024: Report
All of the "world's oil based economy government
The right thing to do, no matter where you live is to replace all politician
To make it happen, you and me, and everyone we know needs to go out and make some noise and tell our leaders that this is what we want. Bring our troops home and begin constructn
Posted: 8/19/11 07:18 PM ET
America and Afghanistan are close to signing a strategic pact which would allow thousands of United States troops to remain in the country until at least 2024, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Read the whole story: The Telegraph
Read the whole story: The Telegraph
Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:
26 minutes ago (3:30 PM)
STOP BLOOD FOR OIL. United States foriegn policy is Anti-Green Energy Economy. The U.S. Governent is sending our sons and daughters overseas to try to keep a false and unsustainaAll of the "world's oil based economy government
The right thing to do, no matter where you live is to replace all politician
To make it happen, you and me, and everyone we know needs to go out and make some noise and tell our leaders that this is what we want. Bring our troops home and begin constructn
Read the original article here.
(vid) Obama Weekly Address: Solar Power & a Clean Energy Economy
President's Weekly Address/Oct 2010: 1,000 new jobs, and clean power for 140,000 homes with Mohave Desert, California solar plant project. Republican politicians want to block this, and all green energy projects. Republicans are blind to progress, they are just asking for a revolution. It's hard to believe that they are that dumb.
BP isn't the only sinner, or the biggest sinner. COAL, DIESEL/OIL, and NATURAL GAS are WORSE
Utility Companies Using A Green Token To Fool Us.
by Pete Whipple on Friday, December 3, 2010 at 1:48am
The Navajo Nation has taken on Southern California Edison and won.This is just one victory, but there are many more electric utilities in America that continue to poison our Country and our Planet. The rest of us need to join this cause today, to shut down the destructive, polluting, and wastefull ways american electric utilities do business. It is time that we all demand "Real" environmental responsibility. The swapping of carbon credits is nothing more than a carnival shell game. Nearly every single electric utility in America continues to pollute and only pretend to be going green.
During the restructuring of California's electric industry in the late 1990s, Southern California Edison sold most of its generating facilities, retaining only its hydropower, coal and nuclear power generating plants. They claim to be providing 20% of thier power with renewable energy, in fact they do not own any wind or solar farms. As with the other U.S. utilities they get most of thier fuel to make electricity from coal. Hydro power has destroyed habitat and fish stocks. Nuclear is only safe until there is a leak.
"YOU CAN'T SPILL GREEN POWER"
Instead SCE buys "green power" from other utilities such as with Puget Sound Energy, in Washington State.
Puget Sound Energy is not an envionmental angel. PSE has about the same mix of fuel, hydro, natural gas and renewable sources of generating power that TVA and Southern Calfrnia Edison do.
Puget Sound Energy
www.pse.com/
Southern California Edison
http://www.sce.com/
2008 Tennessee Valley Authority, Massive Toxic Coal Slurry Spill.
Half a Billion Gallons of Coal Slurry
spilled into the Tennessee River
and covered more than 400 Acres.
TVA Coal Slurry Spill Dec 22, 2008
The Tennessee Valley Authority is another prime example of a major polluter that is attempting to put a green spin on thier activities. There is plenty more information about the massive toxic coal slurry spill into the Tennessee River on these news clips. Half a Billion gallons (Billion with a B) spilled there in 2008.
TVA's web site claims to be investing heavily into green renewable energy, and claims to be strong environmental stewards, but if you visit their site, and you get past thier flashy "green" front page," you will find that they are full of shit, just like the stuff they spilled into Tennessee's Rivers.
They operate 11 coal plants, 87 gas & fuel oil plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, 3 nuclear power plants, and 1 tiny little wind farm, and 15 tiny little solar farms. Their wind farm only generates 29MW, and all the solar farms together only generate 300KW. TVA's other power plants generate a combined 28,000MW and consume and poison billions of gallons of fresh water.
By their own figures 57% is produced with coal, 22% with hydro, 13% with nuclear, and 8% with gas and oil. Thier so called green energy investment and associated production doesn't even figure in to their own math . Don't believe their rhetoric for a second. They don't expect you to read past the first page because they think we are all stupid. TVA, SCE, PSE and all of the other global electric utilities, and other large energy corporations (such as BP, Shell, Chevron) all do the same slick twisting of the truth. They need to be shut down or forced to be truly green now.
http://www.tva.com/
(vid) Psychopaths Could Be In Charge Of America
An Occupy Wall Street activist explains why he thinks it is very important to spread knowledge about psychopaths and psychopathy. Find out about the important connection between psychopaths and the ruling 1%
Not all psychopaths revolve through doors
between jails and hospitals.
Psychopaths can be
Bankers, Politicians, Lawyers, Cops,
and Television talking heads.
REPUBLIC REPORT : Top 6 Corporations To Boycott
Top 6 Corporations to Boycott
The Occupy Wall Street movement has permeated across the country – the 99 percent has changed the dialogue of the 2012 election and beyond. As organizers start to regroup and set their sites on the spring, groups in 34 cities have agreed to “a day of nonviolent direct action” on Feb. 29 against corporations they accuse of working against the public interest. We nominated six we think deserve an Occupation (some are already on an initial target list):
1. Corrections Corporation of America
Headquarters: Nashville, TN
Profiting off keeping people locked away is certainly a siren call for protesting the practices of Corrections Corporation, the country’s largest for-profit prison company. The corporation has recently sought to purchase prisons in 48 different states. But this offer will do little to lessen the long-term strain on state coffers. Even worse, the corporation stipulates that state prison populations must remain at least 90 percent full – not something any democracy should ever strive to pursue. To complicate matters, Corrections Corporation has deep pockets and uses its considerable might to lobby, finance, and otherwise influence politicians across the country. Corrections Corporation, based in Nashville, manages over 60 facilities in 19 states and D.C.
Meanwhile, the Occupy movement is already starting to join up with prison reformers, who seek to change the conditions that make American prisoners the most abused population in our society. Hundreds of protesters gathered at California’s state-run San Quentin prison this week to demonstrate against high incarceration rates and deplorable living conditions for inmates. Recognizing that prison reformers and Occupiers share similar goals, one Occupier, activist Barbara Becnel, quoted a message she said came from San Quentin death row prisoner Kevin Cooper: “We have merged the prison rights movement with the Occupy movement. The 99 percent has to be concerned about the bottom 1 percent.”
That should go for the bottom 1 percent who are under the jurisdiction of companies like Corrections Corporation.
2. Exxon
Headquarters: Irving, TX
ExxonMobil raked in huge profits last year. The oil company’s profits increased by 31 percent in 2011 as compared with 2010. But somehow, this happened while its oil and gas production fell – by 5 percent over that same period. So how does Exxon make more money while producing less oil and gas?
Tax breaks.
Exxon paid an effective tax rate of 17.6 percent, which as the Center for American Progress points out, is 3 percent less than what the average American family paid in taxes. Exxon and other big oil companies don’t pass on the benefits of these tax breaks to consumers. Instead, as CAP writes, “their board members, executives, and shareholders are the ones that profit.”
So how do these oil companies like Exxon get to spend American tax dollars on themselves? By putting even more money into the political system.
Exxon joined four other oil companies in spending $65.7 million on lobbying to retain their tax breaks. For every $1 spent on lobbying, they received $30 in tax breaks, a 3,000 percent return. Additionally, Exxon and its brethren donated over $1.6 million in campaign contributions last year, further securing the policies they like in the future.
Exxon is especially dirty among the Big 5 oil companies. It lobbied for the Keystone XL pipeline and supported climate change denial campaigns, spending $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to such groups. That’s the wrong way to spend taxpayer provided subsidies. All of this is reason enough for some to have already called for an Occupation of Exxon.
3. General Electric
Headquarters: Fairfield, CT
GE is one of the world’s largest corporations, with 2010 profits of $14.2 billion ($5.1 billion of which came from U.S. operations). But how much did it pay in taxes that year?
Nothing.
In fact, as the New York Times reports, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. Furthermore, from 2008 to 2010, G.E. spent $84 billion lobbying the federal government, joining 30 other major corporations spending more on lobbying than on taxes.
In October, Occupiers recognized the symbolism behind G.E.’s exploitation of the tax system, and set out to demonstrate on CEO Jeff Immelt’s front lawn:
“In the land of the free they tax me but not G.E.!” read the invitation to take an hour bus ride to Immelt’s family home to join the protest, organized by liberal political party Connecticut Working Families. “General Electric made billions last year; they paid no taxes, outsourced thousands of jobs, and got over $3 billion in tax refunds! Join us on a free bus trip to G.E’s CEO’s front lawn to see how our friends in the 1% live.”Given all that and considering the fact that Immelt serves as chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, even though during his tenure GE has steadily shipped jobs overseas, perhaps it’s time to re-Occupy.
4. Monsanto
Headquarters: St. Louis, MO
This giant agricultural biotechnology company is already the focus of activist groups and for good reason. Not only is Monsanto the overwhelming leader in producing genetically engineered seeds used in the United States, it also actively works to squeeze out competitors and control seed prices. The company has also targeted small farmers with ruthless legal battles, essentially forcing them to use Monsanto-branded seeds. Because of these dirty practices, Monsanto was the target of an antitrust investigation last year.
Meanwhile, Monsanto has considerable pull within the U.S. government. Most notably, former Monsanto vice president Michael Tyler is now a senior advisor to the Food and Drug Administration. A petition has circulated recently demanded that the Obama Administration “cease FDA ties to Monsanto”:
“President Obama, I oppose your appointment of Michael Taylor,” the petition on Signon.org reads. “Taylor is the same person who was Food Safety Czar at the FDA when genetically modified organisms were allowed into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty.”
5. Bank of America
Headquarters: Charlotte, NC
“It’s not me, it’s you,” read one. “Just kidding, it’s you.”These were some of the Valentines sent by Occupiers to Bank of America earlier this month to break up with the bank over its controversial practices seen as unfriendly to consumers, including a recent attempt to impose a $5-a-month debit card fee. It’s too bad the government hasn’t also followed suit. BofA spent $3.2 million lobbying the government last year and about $3 million on campaign contributions in 2008.
“I’m not falling for ‘phase out’ again.”
“Who’s too big to fail?”
“It’s over, BofA.”
Even while he has criticized the bank for the debit card fee and engaged with the bank on mortgage settlement talks, President Obama has decided to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC, in part to sell more skyboxes to moneyed donors.
6. Walmart
Headquarters: Bentonville, Ark.
This one might be a “Duh.” But Walmart is both deserving of an occupation and easy to occupy. Sure, the company’s Arkansas headquarters aren’t exactly easily accessible for Occupiers from across the country. But Walmart’s thousands of stores nationwide are an easy target for citizens concerned with the company’s standard-setting low wages, labor issues, and steamrolling of local businesses. Moreover, while the corporation had long ago inserted itself in rural America, it now has its sites set on the country’s cities. Walmart plans to open four stores in Washington, DC, for example, and has its sites set on even more locations.
Occupy has already targeted Walmart, most notably to protest the company’s decision to cut health care benefits for full-time workers and eliminate insurance for new part-time workers. But with Walmart continuing to spend about $7.8 million a year lobbying on issues including taxes and labor, it’s worth a continued Occupation.
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