Starbucks hates Shutdowns

On Oct 10, Starbucks CEO requested its patrons to sign a petition asking Congress to open the Government, pay debt and all that good stuff.

IMHO, Starbucks should stick to selling overpriced coffee, drop this false equivalency and leave the political activism to the informed public. (Starbucks fanatics, don't get angry. I'm also a patron!)

One small... sorry Tall Cafe Vanilla Frappucino Lite please!

Reason I'm angry is, Howard Schultz wants us to petition to whole congress to do it's job. Only part of Republican House Members are refusing to do their jobs and holding country hostage every few months. It's not the whole Republican party either. I call bullshit on this false equivalency.

If you look at what starbucks is asking patrons to petition, that's exactly  President pleaded Tea Party and they refused. So instead of calling out Tea Party, Starbucks CEO was telling people that Congress isn't working, which isn't true. So why not just stay quiet and President and House settle this.
 

Problem with these me too campaigns is, people fail to notice that a faction of Republicans asked for this and caused this. What Tea party blames as the threat to American Way is the ObamaCare. The healthcare law passed by Congress, upheld by Supreme Court and based on which Obama got relected. And now Congress refuses to pass budget unless healtcare law is defunded. If you look back, Democrats got majority in house in 2006. Even though they hated Iraq war, they didn't force Bush to defund that war to keep the government running. For one one thing, ObamaCare is self-funded, Congress can't defund it. Once people realized that, TeaParty changed their demand to an 1 year delay.

Surprisingly President refused to negotiate, held his ground. As there's no leverage left, Tea party backed off and Republicans potty trained adults cleaned up the mess. Government will be open until jan 15th , debt ceiling extended until Feb 7th. Mark my words, we'll be here again, sooner than we think. You might ask why? That's cause 2010 and '12 elections bought so many Tea Party freshmen into house who wouldn't even listen to their Speaker. They'd voted for repeal of ObamaCare, 46 times. Needless to say, the mandate from their districts is to rescue the country from the jaws of socialism. In their hatred for President, they're weakening the country with these shutdown threats and debt ceiling fights. So much for patriotism. Not every republican is responsible for this, only the Tea party caucus refuses to be reasonable. Below is the voting pattern in the last CR vote which ended shutdown, you can see which house member is sane and otherwise.

Fl-22, a typical gerrymandered district.
Allen West won this in 2010, but lost in 2012.

You might be wondering, don't these wingnuts fear for re-election. No they don't fear general election, they fear primaries. If they don't vote based on these party lines, PACs and Tea Party groups like Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth will draft a challenger and defeat the member in primaries. Their districts are safe cause of Gerrymandering. It's a process in which state governments carefully redraw electoral district lines to remove demographics which might vote for other party. This makes these districts very safe in General elections for the parties which're in power in States.

See how bad few districts are drawn. There's no way the other party can win in these districsts. Redistricting happens every 10 years based on census. Make no mistake, both the parties does this but in 2010 Republicans pushed the envelope too far. And it's helping them. You'll be surprised how extreme it became.

Healthcare bill opponents say that we've the world's finest health care system and it doesn't require any change. We all knew it's a lie, we've read and heard many stories about pricey healthcare is in our country. Ours is the only developed country without universal healthcare. And then, we all have a personal experience or two about how insurance companies try to nickel and dime us.

The U.S. stands almost entirely alone among developed nations that lack universal health care.

Tea Party people oppose the healthcare just cause of  ideology. On a second thought no, they just hate president. Health care bill is based on personal responsibility, preached by Republicans. As I mentioned many times here, Heritage foundation is the one who invented this Individual mandate. Romney adapted it successfully in Mass. Now the same Heritage foundation opposes it as the individual mandate infringes on our Liberties. Consider it a dog whistle.

Also not to be forgotten, the billionaires who're behind this Defund ObamaCare movement. Koch Brothers. They're the one who funded this. They grew up with Libertarian ideas, nothing wrong with it. But they're also trying shape the government as per their dreams by pumping millions of dollars into elections and primaries. Small government (read as Weak government) is good for their business as they routinely run into trouble with EPA and other regulatory agencies. Not just the Tea party, they fund think tanks, opinion journalists and universities to get legitimacy to their Small Government/Free Market ideas. So far it's working.

And if you think tempers raised, Tea party Congress men wanted to please voters in their districts, it's not true. It's a process deliberated and orchestrated by outside groups for months. While the people and corporations are suffering with shutdown, Ted Cruz raised used huge haul of cash by scaring people. There're two primary Public figures in this shutdown. Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz is the self serving Canadian born, half Cuban half Caucasian Senator from Texas. He's the one who pushed the house members into this shutdown. Then there's former Senator of South Carolina, Jim DeMint. Senate didn't provide him the platform big enough to spread his Small government message, so he resigned and took the job of Heritage Foundation's President. Once a respected conservative think tank with few ideas, is now sending emails to support the United States Government to shutdown under his direction.

 

If you stop and think, it's not about deficits or saving country for next generation. If they care for Liberty and privacy, they'll be protesting NSA. If they want an accountable government they'll be fighting to stop Obama's drone program which had granted itself  legitimacy to kill American citizens without trial. This is the seething anger that a African-American president. Few days ago, a Tea party protestor showed up at the White House with Confederate flag. That indicates that South is in control of Tea party and this isn't about Health Care. They're still bitter about loosing Civil War and they still haven't gotten over it.

So what's the end game, I don't know.  We'll be back into this by end of this year. House will be with Republicans for atleast 7 more years. But cause of changing demographics Democrats will have more chances to retain majority seats in senate. If they don't screw up, may be White house also. But again Dems know a thing or two about pulling  Defeat out of the jaws of Victory. So get used to this.

There's a glimmer of hope, US chamber of Commerce is now disappointed with Tea Party congressmen whom they supported, funded and sent to Washington. It's repenting now and is planning to support less crazy candidates in the 2014. House might still be under Republicans control, but with people who're smarter than batshit crazy Tea party members who're in control now.

They say elections have consequences, these are the consequences. Call you voter friends in South Carolina and Texas and thank them for sending these traitors to Washington.

Is a revolution overdue in India? Depends on whom you ask...

At any NRI gathering, if we're not talking about immigration or how people are suffering cause of Thaman's music, we talk about India politics. Wherever the discussion starts, we end up with corrupt AP politics, by that I mean how much wealth Jagan amassed with his father's influence, how he might come out before elections and how corrupt was YSR's administration. Some of us will proclaim that, one day a change will occur and it'll cleanse the system. Few other places and settings, it's also called a revolt or revolution.

I'm skeptical about that revolution or change...cause most of the revolutions happen when people are vexed and their lives become unbearable. If you pay attention, in India, particularly in AP, only middle class is suffering. Poor are happy with their upgraded living standards.

Yes there're poor people and poverty exists. But it's not like 80s or 90s, any poor who has vote is covered by one or more welfare scheme. In AP I can list Paniki Aaharam, Jala Yagnam, Fee Reimbursement Scheme, Bangaru Thalli, Mana Biyyam and then Aarogyasri. At central level Food Security Bill, Cash Transfer Scheme etc. As counter intuitive it sounds, it's not that bad to be poor in India.

Poor aren't struggling. They've cellphones, bikes and all other stuff which were considered as comforts 10,15 years ago. It's not like they've running water and 24 hours power supply. Consistency of life is not what's important for them. Middle class yearns for it, cause they paid their dues. What poor look out for themselves is food and shelter. No matter how much corruption exists in India, most of the poor with a vote gets these. It's good thing to be poor and born in Lower Caste. Cause you'll be benefited by poverty schemes and reservations.

But upper middle class, salaried people with professional jobs. They have to pay all kinds of taxes, as taxes are deducted at source. There's no such thing called black money...other than some money which they might've made with a real estate sale. But there's no reliable power supply, no proper roads, and no consistent supply of water. In the year of 2013, power and water became luxuries.

In Guntur, AP the place where I come from, a 3 BR apartment of standard living area goes for 1 cr. But there's no ground water, you've to buy water through tankers every day. Yes there's no ground water in Hyderabad or Vijayawada, but they've river water which is pumped to homes by Muncipal corporations. But there's no such thing for our area. The last few days, with all the bandhs you can't expect tankers to be on time.1 cr for an apartment where you don't reliable water which you're willing to pay. And when there's an unregulated industry, a cartel develops. e.g. Banglore water mafia.

Rich and wealthy, as you know they can get all the GOs passed and they're prospering. Look at all the scams Emaar, VANPIC, Bayyaram Mines, Outer Ring road. And the people who're in jail now, Koneru Rajendra Prasad, Gali Janardhana Reddy, Nimmagadda Prasad and others. All those construction projects, road widenings, mining projects gotta make somebody rich right?! It's not that all the rich are happy about this. Corruption and racketeering became so prevalent in YSR's administration that reputed business families in AP like GMR, GVK and Lanco stayed out of AP as they couldn't play by Jagan's rules. But again, being capitalists they investing elsewhere to the loss of AP. Rich didn't loose any, more of an inconvenience for them and loss of GDP for the state.

Jagan's Empire : But how much a poor voter cares

Coming back to Welfare schemes, I've relatives who got benefited by Aarogyasri. On of my distant aunts, approximately 55 year old widow had a leg fracture and got treated under Aarogyasri. Issue here is, middle class pay for all this and poor are getting benefits cause of the politicians. My aunt who's barely educated, wouldn't think who paid for this, who's becoming rich cause of this and all the economic theories. Back in the day, government hospital might not've treated her at all, but she got treatment at corporate hospital cause of Aarogyasri. That's all she cares and that's all she could. You can't explain a daily wage earner, how much govt land is lost cause of SEZs and mining lands.

Entitlements/Welfare schemes, they exists here in US also, but that money spent should at least be budgeted for. Social Security and Medicare operate that way. But Medicaid wasn't. Food Stamps  budgeted for. But in AP, I don't think it's a problem, NTR might've started Rs.2 rice with good intentions but he never cared for budget. YSR started most number of populist schemes, nobody cared for budget as liquor sales are paying the bills, and it made his friends and followers extremely rich

Most of the Telugu NRIs who despise YSR have a level of disconnect about Aarogyasri. Yes, it's cronyism, but poor got benefited by it and they'll vote for his son. Same with fee reimbursement. More people are getting false income statements to get that fee. Middle class are the one who pay for all these, rich they'll never pay their fair share. cause most of the income is never accounted for. Poor would never have any income that can taxed, other than the sales taxes which they pay.

Usually we blame politicians for all the problems. but voters are never blamed. Voters are the culprits here. (In US you can blame candidates first, as they take bribes, oops..I mean contributions from corporations for their PACs) I've seen last panchayati elections closely. Villagers expect money from all the contestants. In a moderate village, almost 50 lakhs was spent. The person who won the election, he expects that money, interest and profit from his term. And how would he get that money back? Development funds. How can villagers ask for better roads, power or drains if they're sold out.
This repeats for Assembly, Parliament, Cabinet etc.

Poor are always well engaged with voting. By that I means, they'll vote for highest bidder. Upper middle class are always disengaged. To vote, they need to register for vote, which many wouldn't. But again they don't have much choice. You've Congress or TDP candidate, most probably both of them entered politics to make money. If you're from lower caste in India, you're very well represented. if you belong to an upper caste but poor, tough luck.

If you look at the immigration patterns in western countries, more than ever..very big number of educated and working Indian youngsters are living outside the country. And those are votes which aren't cast. It's not to imply that people living abroad are smarter than people living in India. These votes could've tilted results of many constituencies where the winning margin was low.

Here in US, people of all economic classes, corporations are engaged in politics. Rich to protect their lower taxes and poor to protect their entitlements. Of course there's a set of people who vote against their interests, like a hedge fund manager's social conscious wife who votes for democrats and a poor plant worker in red state  who votes for republican. Why, cause it's the right thing to do. Middle class get swayed by social issue/culture wars that year. Gay marriage, Abortion, Immigration..

The lowest strata of the society is happy with the way things are. Affluent are prospering even more. A change or mass movement usually comes from these two. With poor it's genuine and rich can orchestrate a AstroTurf campaign or use hired goons. And upper middle class they've jobs to do, spouses and kids to go home to. They need their salaries to pay for their house, car, kids education and all other. There's no energy or drive left for these. That could be one of the reasons why the Anna Hazare movement lost its steam. There's political spinoff by name Aam Aadmi Party, but I don't know how effective it would be.

There's one way this could end, when governments run  out of money for  these welfare programs. In AP I've seen these schemes in full swing since 2004, they haven't stopped until now. As long as India can borrow and taxable base increases, this will go on.

With the complacency of middle class and the entitlements of poor and luxurious lives of rich, I don't see a incentive/opportunity for any change. Poor doesn't want anything taken away from them. Rich are happy at where they're. Who cares if politicians are corrupt, about their nepotism, cronyism or how much public wealth is plundered.

I used almost 1500 words for this, but Sri Gollapudi Maruti Rao said this more effectively in 2 minutes.in Leader movie.

 

Unlike other arguments, I'd like to be proven wrong about this.

But I just don't know how I can lose on this.

Circle of Life

Losing my Grandfather - Sri Kongara Adinarayana garu

11 years in USA, I'd always dreaded a call from India in off hours in US or India Time. And that call came on Tuesday 06/25 around 4:20PM. My dad told me that Tatayya had passed away few hours back. I took me few seconds for that to sink in. Called my sister and aunt. There's grief, but no overbearing sadness or shock, out of sight, out of mind! At least I found some solace that he didn't suffer long, as this is a sudden demise.

As one of my uncles told me, we had a quiet decade in which we didn't lose anybody close. I lost a paternal aunt in 1996, maternal grandparents in 1999 and 2001 and my Chinnayanamma in 2001. (Grand Aunt in American parlance) I was in college, and those deaths didn't hit me as hard it had hit me now. We're lot more euphoric in teens and 20s.

My grandfather used to visit us in Guntur frequently more times than we went to village. We always liked his company as he always had a tinge of humor and ironical tone. When you grow up in a town, simple colloquial words from village make you laugh out loud. Even words like kalam(కలం) make you crack. Whenever I say subrathiga (శుభ్రతిగ), one of my Tatayya's words, my parents chuckle.

Myself and sister with Tatayya in Paluvayi, 1988

He is a man of big physique and widely respected and well known in our and neighboring villages. The number of people of who showed up for his funeral and other ceremonies showed how revered he was. He had seen many ups and downs in his life. He used to fondly show a watch which I'd sent him to all his friends, relatives and tell them how much it costs. When you come from a farming community and small village, a grandson going to USA for studies, it's a proud thing to tell. Today it feels like I didn't live up to his expectations. But again, I didn't live up to many people's expectations. That's for another day.

I was the first child in my generation in our family and neighboring families with our last name, so I was always special to my Grandfather. Being the first child born in the family after my Great Grandfather had expired, I was initially named after him..
Kongara China Venkayya, Venkata Krishna

2009/12/28 - Paluvayi, Guntur Dt

I never got a chance or moment to just burst into tears and break out loud about his, even though there's a feeling of loss which chokes me. This is my kind of obituary or remembrance.
Whatever we're today, it's because of you Tatayya. We miss you.
Rest in Peace.

Bit of introspective now.
Close friends know me as a cynical person who's always worried about almost non-existential things. Fear of losing a loved one is always in the back of my mind. But last few years, I'd a bubble around me and I'd made a cushy life inside that. Bubble made of Travel, reading Times, WSJ, fb, onion, gawker, online shopping, cars and I rationalized all this with my immigration hassles. Even though I'm self aware of my actions, I'm happy burning my time in analyzing news, making wisecracks in fb and basking in narcissistic glow.

In a way, this brought me back into reality. I don't know how this plays out from here.

Why Me

Whenever we feel  that we're going through unjust pain or agony, sooner or later we'll go through that Why Me feeling. It could be an accident, relationship issue, immigration hassles, job loss, change in physical appearance...anything. In most of these, we don't have much control of circumstances. One of the things people say to comfort us is Things happen for reason. I always had an issue with it, I'll come back to it later.

Let's get through the few types of situations we or others whom we know might face.

If it's Relationship or Divorce, there's a partner in the mix. You can attribute the difficulty to many incidents in the past and the declining compatibility, infidelity, finances etc. It's not like we're being punished by an invisible hand or something.

Then there's this situation of kids being born with incurable ailments. If they're born blind or deaf they might not even know how the other world feels. How a world with vision or sound works and feels. That kid while growing up might understand that he's different from others, but wouldn't know how other world feels. Imagine how hard it would be on parents, they've nobody to blame except for some weird genes or bad luck. But think of dwarfs or people with visible disabilities like polio. It'll be both hard on them and their family. But, there's nothing anybody can do. Fortunately polio is almost eradicated, many thanks to Bill Gates.

Today I get to watch this news about the rise of Iraqi babies being born with birth defects and abnormalities cause of uranium residue from the war. In this case Iraqis know whom to blame, neo-cons and Bush for that unnecessary Iraq war, but the babies might not survive that long. If they get to grow older, they can understand that soldiers didn't target them. It just happened to be that they're born in Iraq and they're victim of the residue in air.

And then there's being at wrong place at wrong time. Like people who got killed in Boston Marathon, Texas fertilizer factory explosion, Sandy Hook school. In all these cases, victims aren't personally targeted. They just happened to be there.

In all the above, no body is specifically profiting by making others suffer. But lately I've been reading about the kind of news where law enforcements incarcerate innocents because of racial profiling or their inability to capture actual culprit.

In this Central Park Jogger incident in 1991, 5 teenagers started their 13 years prison sentence for the rape, but actually they didn't commit that crime. They're all forced by Police to make wrong statements implicating their other friends. Rape victim being white woman, 4 teenagers're black and 1 is Hispanic. This added racial prejudice to this case.

In 1991, New York resident 36 year old David Ranta was convicted of a murder of  a Rabbi. But there's no physical evidence connecting him to the murder. After serving more than 23 years in jail, he's released this month as 58 old, thanks to a Public Defender effort. As the irony goes, Mr. Ranta suffered heart attack after he came out of jail.

And this case from Arizona where an innocent black man Louis C. Taylor served 42 years in jail for an arson crime.He was convicted by an all-white jury. He was exonerated cause of the advances in science, but he wouldn't be able to sue the police. That's the deal he got.

 

As you can see there's a party to blame in all the above cases. Law enforcement trying shortcuts to close the case, over zealous District Attorneys and Jury members who're ill informed or biased. For most of them there wouldn't be any repercussions. But think of all the time these people spent in jail for the crime which they didn't commit, few times they're not even aware of until they're arrested. 

Mr. Taylor spent 42 years in Jail, 42 years! That means he was thrown in jail before I was even born. That time I grew up in India, went to college, moved to US...all this time he was languishing in jail. Their prime age was lost in jail.  If not for this imprisonment, they could've got married, had kids and if lucky had grand kids also.

I can't imagine how many times, these innocent people asked themselves Why Me. That usual cliched line, Things happen for a reason wouldn't help it. How can you reason, when innocents lost 20, 40 years of their life cause of others lack of concern, ignorance and racist prejudice.

All these incidents happened before the existence of private prison industry. You can imagine how many more people are going to jail cause of three strikes law and mandatory sentencing laws. Like many of my other posts, I don't have any answers or suggestions. This is just the sad reality,  result of ignorant voters voting for corrupt politicians and bad ideology mixed with capitalism.

We might try to rule out all the above incidents as something from another generation and those wouldn't happen now. No, they're happening right now, it's the Gitmo. Read this op-ed in NYT, narrated to a lawyer by a prisoner. Even though Bush started this, Obama got blood on his hands. 

We'll never question lawmakers about these as we're all busy with our shitty reality shows and talent shows.

The Way We Were

Remember how we're when we're kids....until that age we didn't know what worry is and what it means. Everything is taken care of by parents and grandparents, we just grew up, get used to parents, home, surroundings and don't need to do anything else.

(I can only speak for myself and friends who grew up along with me in a middle class upbringing. Anybody born into poverty or a broken home, might've experienced hunger or abusive parent very early.)

As we grow up slowly we wouldn't be worried ...but we come to know what money is and that few posses it more than us and few less than us. That might be one of the important things which we discover ourselves in our lifetime. It wouldn't be an epiphany, but a slow process.

Then we would be worried about homework, exams and movies which we couldn't go even though all our friends are going. As we get into teens, it's all about impressing the opposite sex. Then for the chosen few (from Indian perspective) girlfriend or boyfriend issues. Then study abroad / job search..

Few just cruised through, few worked hard and few struggled, but I didn't experience phenomenon by name frustration. That helpless feeling that sinks in when there's so many things in this world which're unjust and we can't do anything about it.

For me I guess the first thing (apart from personal things) which got me all worked up and frustrated was Iraq war. I couldn't get my head around thought that we can go to war with less powered nation for made up reason with clever media management and a bumper sticker 'war against terrorism'.

It took me years but I made peace with it, then the financial crisis, my immigration hassles and related issues. Then right wing group, their thinly veiled racism and their aversion to science, gender equality, social safety net and rise of batshit crazy people like sarah palin, michele bachmann, allen west et al. I've grievances with liberals also.

This frustration might vary from person to person, I can see why these bother me so much. The amount of time I spend reading the news, columns, listening and sometimes writing. I've been interested in reading since I was kid, but when you're 9 year old your focus will be about how things work. My initial interests were stories, astronomy, then slowly progressed into how things work, politics, movies, technology. I was interested about politics in India also, but that never caused frustration. What was missing then...which exists right now? I guess until I came to US, I only read how things're and how things work. I might not've read why is system flawed and who is benefiting from it.

I was never frustrated about any singular thing as I'm about gun control now. Even Visa hassles which gave me so much pain, didn't make me this frustrated. I already read and heard so much about guns  and culture even before the rampage of all these shootings. So nothing is really surprising to me. But after Sandy Hook there's scrutiny of NRA's process, which was missing before. The travesty in the name of second amendment protection is sickening.

How much NRA bullied politicians, influenced Gun regulation or lack thereof is mind boggling.

Tiahrt Amendment

Ban on CDC research on Gun Violence

Restrictions on ATF

No centralized database of guns

When you walk through an airport security, a shampoo bottle bigger than 3oz or grandma's medicine is a security risk. In the same country, in almost all the cities you can walk with concealed weapon or automatic weapon with minimal restrictions. It's like we live in two parallel worlds. Any form of gun control is considered as infringement of second amendment.

After Sandy Hook, I'd a breakdown on social networks, donated money to Gun Control advocacy groups, will donate again,  But I can't go to rallies cause of work. In the past, no matter what we did, NRA got the upper hand. Because they've a product to sell...and we oppose the product. They've a monetary cause, ours is safety/survival cause. That could be the reason they're winning. Same with Arizona and other states immigration laws. Private prison lobbied for AZ law as this law will keep the inmates coming to these prisons. As a bonus conservatives can rally the extreme right voters.

That feeling of loss isn't boding well with me and I really look back at days of those blissful innocence. The more we know, the more cynical we become. Information or facts are only useful when you can use them for our advancement or society upliftment. Information might be power, but ignorance is a bliss.

Is there any reason to be optimistic? So much money poured into last election to defeat Obama. Koch brothers had spent almost 400 Million USD, Adelson spent another 100 Million and all those SuperPACs. But Obama prevailed. I'm not saying he's messiah or anything...he's just another politician. But money can't buy all the elections, that's one of the takeaways from last general election.

I hope common sense will prevail over money in Gun Control fight also. The stake are high, it's our next generation lives.

Come for the overpriced produce, stay for the ugly rhetoric

On Wednesday 01/16th, Whole Paycheck CEO John Mackey called the ObamaCare as Fascist law  while promoting his book on npr's morning edition. And then, shitstorm ensued.

Let's get a few things out of our way. Mackey is entitled to his opinion and he can voice it. I understand the frustration of providing health insurance because of a government mandate as his primary duty is to increase the shareholder equity. ;)

But the paradox here is, you run a store where a gallon of milk costs double or triple the price in a regular grocery store. That's because you sell food with organic ingredients and you've some policies about procuring produce locally, not to sell foods with certain kind of ingredients and all. And who're the typical patrons of whole foods? Hipsters who live beyond their means and Liberal Ladies who drive LandRovers. OK that's stereotyping, but you get the picture. Most of the whole foods customer base which includes above stereotypes and people who fall in between these two extremes voted for Obama and supported his healthcare law.

CEO of an upscale Organic Store which sells $10 soaps and 100 types of cheses and gourmet salts (wtf?) should tread carefully on political issues. Calling healthcare law as fascism is like Zuckerburg making fun of moms who facebook their baby pictures for the lack of productivity or Instagram founder ridiculing people who lounge in Starbucks during working hours and instagram pics of their sugary drinks and sunsets. Those analogies are little far fetched, but what I'm trying to say is why would anybody alienate their customer base, particularly when you're running a business which solely relies on the concept of customer paying high for the greater good of society and sustainability of earth.

And Mackey chose the best platform to reach out to customer base and then blew it. You don't go on Morning Edition and talk ill about healthcare law. No self respecting liberal driving a volvo / sipping her chai latte / eating his granola would miss that. This shit would've flied, if this's Cracker Barrel CEO complaining on Fox news. It could've brought more old people into those restaurants as a freedom appreciation day or some BS name to it. I said cracker barrel as it's the exact opposite of whole foods. And the existence of this restaurant or shop gives you a rough idea whether you're in blue or red area.

Once this shit had hit the fan, Mackey forced to give a pseudo-apology, he likes a Swiss model here in USA.

I believe that, if the goal is universal health care, our country would be far better served by combining free enterprise capitalism with a strong governmental safety net for our poorest citizens and those with preexisting conditions, helping everyone to be able to buy insurance. This is what Switzerland does and I think we would be much better off copying that system than where we are currently headed in the United States.

Government helping poor people buy insurance, isn't that socialism? Or whatever thing which Republicans call as wealth redistribution? Healthcare is screwed up in USA, there's no denial about it. That's how insurance companies make profit. And this whole government take over is utter nonsense. Obama gave a gift to insurance companies, which keeps on giving in the form of healthcare mandate which was first proposed by Heritage foundation in 1989, not a liberal group by any measure. Once a self-responsibility idea supported by Bob Dole (1996 Republican candidate for President) became a government takeover in 2010. I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure that Black man in White House now is just a coincidence.

I don't run any business, so I might be misinformed about many things. But as an employee, I pay my health insurance, and when the rates went up I took the brunt, not my employer. And if whole foods is already paying health insurance, why is he bothered about ObamaCare. Wait, I know ..libertarians don't want government to tell them anything. In that Utopian land, there wouldn't be FDA, FAA, clean air/water act or any law of the land.

 

For Mackey, this isn't a moment he got carried away and said something which he didn't mean. He wrote an op-ed in WSJ in summer of '09 calling it socialism even before the bill was presented in Congress. This is the same genius who was caught bashing Wild Oats in 2005 with a pseudonym on yahoo finance, at that time Whole Foods was trying to take over Wild Oats

My Question here is, is this just the Mackey's Cognitive dissonance where his ideology contradicts their company mission statement and operating model. Or is it just bad PR training which he gets.

Talking about PR, who're the hacks training this guy and that Chick-fil-A CEO. Or all those Republican politicians who just can't resist talking about rape. I feel that I can run a better shop than these clueless numbnuts who're training/advising these CEOs and politicians.  Only if my rich friends are reading this..

Thanks in advance for your seed money fellas.