Hillary Rodham-Clinton comments on Wal-Mart in 1990

[nationalize the fed]

“As a shareholder and director of our company, I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else,” current Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a speech in 1990, when she was first lady of Arkansas.

The largest grocery retailer in the U.S. and the biggest company in the world by revenue, Wal-Mart has long been criticized for paying its workers poverty wages. Because those workers often require financial assistance from the U.S. government, Wal-Mart effectively receives a subsidy on labor.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/video_hillary_clinton_in_1990_im_proud_of_walmart_20150525

[Buzz Clik]

1. WalMart circa 1990. I actually shopped there at that time.

I wouldn't shop at WalMart today under any circumstances.

I guess some people are certain that nothing changes over a period of 25 years.

[nationalize the fed]

3. "nothing changes"

2 things have changed for sure over the last 25 years-

The Waltons have gotten filthy rich and

The middle class has lost jobs, income and dignity

[Buzz Clik]

6. Yep. And Clinton has distanced herself from the company.

Done and done.

Next smear, please.

[pengu]

32. Ya, that's some real distance there

Wal-Mart scion Alice Walton ... cut $25,000 checks to Ready for Hillary last year, the super PAC said in a public filing.

Alice Walton gave to republicans last cycle, but she's all in for Clinton this time.

[Buzz Clik]

35. You're going to document that, right? Demonstrate that the Waltons (all of them)

... are giving the Clinton ONLY. Or just Alice. Link?

It would also be nice for you to demonstrate the quid pro quo. You gonna attempt that, too?

Surely, you're doing more than empty smears, right?

[stonecutter357]

13. back when warren was in the gop?

[bigbrother05]

38. Wasn't Hillary a "Goldwater Girl"?

You are right, we all grow in our own ways.

Think that Sam Walton would be ashamed of direction his company has gone. He was proud of their Made in USA program of encouraging and selling US production. It's one thing to offer foreign made products and another thing to actively off-shore items.

[LuvLoogie]

48. Yes. She was 17 once.

[Paka]

19. I can proudly say,

I have never stepped foot into a Walmart and never will! They are a scourge on the planet.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. 1990? Twenty-five fucking years ago?

You bring this up, why?

To show us there is something wrong about the wife of the Governor saying something good about the largest business in their state?

Should she have told them they were scumbags and should move to Mississippi? Along with Tyson?

As attacks on Hillary go, this one is one of the more pathetic.

[nationalize the fed]

4. watch the second video

or don't, i really don't care

[Buzz Clik]

5. "Clinton has since denounced WalMart company policies." Thanks for the tip.

I was certain that Hillary would no longer take that point of view.

[leftofcool]

7. Boy, you folks will dig up irrelevant stuff from 25 years ago!

[L0oniX]

24. Eventually even the Iraq war will be 25 years ago.

[BeanMusical]

36. +1

[TreasonousBastard]

10. But you care enough to dig up these old clips...

Wal-Mart is a trigger in some circles, as if the past is the present and the future. Just mentioning the name brings up all the fears and hatreds.

But you know that, and labor justice isn't your point-- trashing Hillary is your point.

How does Hillary feel about Amazon warehouses replacing pickers with robots because they're cheaper than cheap Amazon wages and don't take breaks or collapse from heatstroke?

[freshwest]

41. Also forgotten that when Sam was in charge WalMart was considered a friend of labor. Their motto of

MADE IN AMERICA was a real thing back then and people shopped there to help other American workers stay at work and protect the manufacturing base in the USA.

After Sam passed, the kids took over and applied the Randian method to the business. They began selling foreign goods to increase their profits, workers be damned. It's not the same kind of place as it was 25 years ago.

[leveymg]

44. Hillary was on the Wal*Mart Board of Directors. They weren't just her husband's constituent

Before she was put on the Board, she was one of the company's attorneys at the Rose Law Firm while her husband was Governor. They must have thought she was quite good at representing the company.

[Gman]

8. Really? This was 25 years ago

and you're posting it now? Really?

[JDPriestly]

14. Compare Bernie Sanders 25 years ago.

We have a choice. Eve 25 years ago, Bernie Sanders stood for working people and values that would benefit all people.

After several unsuccessful runs for office, Sanders was elected Mayor of Burlington, Vermont's largest city, in 1981. He was re-elected to three more two-year terms before being elected to represent Vermont's at-large congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in 1990. He served as a Congressman for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 to succeed the retiring Republican-turned-independent Jim Jeffords. He was re-elected in 2012 by a landslide.

. . . .

In 1981, at the suggestion of his friend Richard Sugarman, a professor of religion at the University of Vermont, Sanders ran for mayor of Burlington and defeated six-term Democratic incumbent Gordon Paquette by 10 votes [30] in a four-way contest. Sanders won three more terms, defeating both Democratic and Republican candidates. In his final run for mayor in 1987, Sanders defeated a candidate endorsed by both major parties.[31]

During Sanders' first term, his supporters, including the first Citizens Party City Councilor Terry Bouricius, formed the Progressive Coalition, the forerunner of the Vermont Progressive Party.[citation needed] The Progressives never held more than six seats on the 13-member city council but had enough votes to keep the council from overriding Sanders' vetoes.[citation needed] Under Sanders, Burlington became the first city in the country to fund community-trust housing. His administration also sued the local cable television provider and won considerably reduced rates and a substantial cash settlement.[citation needed]

After serving four terms, Sanders chose not to seek reelection in 1989. He briefly taught political science at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government that year and at Hamilton College in 1991.[32]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders

[Scuba]

16. +1

[onehandle]

17. I am in no way judging Bernie, whom I admire greatly and would gladly vote for should he win nomination...

...but comparing the snippet of time 25 years ago of a mayor of a Northeast blue, blue, blue city with a first lady of a ever reddening Southern state, Democrat or not, is pretty ridiculous.

I fucking hate Walmart, but at the time it was much of the economy of Arkansas. What was this unelected person supposed to do?

[JDPriestly]

27. What you say is true and understandable, but Bernie was way ahead of Hillary.

Sorry. Those are just the facts.

Vermont was not that blue until Patrick Leahy got elected. When I was a child in the 40s and 50s, it was considered to be a conservative state.

Sanders and Leahy get part of the credit for changing the state from red to blue although the changes probably happened just before their time.

On the other hand, as you point out, Arkansas has become more conservative since the Clintons were in charge. Is their any causal relationship? I don't know.

[MyNameGoesHere]

33. Comparing VT conservative to

Arkansas conservatism is laughable and you know it.

[JDPriestly]

47. Actually, I am 72, and when I think about the Vermont of my childhood, it is not laughable

at all. Vermont is much more liberal than it used to be.

I remember listening (radio back then) to the incoming presidential election results as a child. Vermont was predictably conservative as I recall. It came in early because it is in the Northeast.

[MyNameGoesHere]

49. I am sure you felt that way

comparing conservative south to the conservative north is still laughable. Those are the conservatives we used to be able to get along with. However I am sure you felt that way. I just don't think it was based in reality.

[JDPriestly]

50. It was based in reality. Google the history of Vermont's voting record in presidential elections..

Research the issue. you will see. Prior to The 1970s ans even after that, Vermont was conservative.

As for the South, have you heard of Southern Democrats? Extremely common prior to Johnson, passage of the Civil Rights Act. They were liberal on certain economic issues, backward and hateful on race. Have you heard og Nixon's Southern strategy?

It's history that is important to know and understand. Thanks.Ksorry about typos. Using ipad I am not used to.

[Paka]

20. Thank you!

[Gman]

21. That makes no sense

[L0oniX]

23. Thread win!

[Thespian2]

9. Can a Corporate Shill

change its spots???

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Or you could claim Walmart went downHill after she left.

[4now]

12. Desperation and frustration are starting to set in.

Maybe next time look for something from the 21 century.
LMAO.

[onehandle]

15. I heard that when Hillary was hungry as a baby, she lobbied her parents for sustenance.

What a fraud little crying Hillary was sixty years ago or so.

Literally sucking at the teat of 'big family.'

[whereisjustice]

18. She's grown since then, now she shills for Goldman, Citi and JP Morgan. It takes a bank

to raise a Clinton family.

[L0oniX]

22. ^^^THIS^^^

[leveymg]

45. No need to grow much. Her Rose clients included BCCI, First American Bank, Stephens, and Walmart

Wal*Mart is almost the least of it. This from the murky, almost obscured, often denied, past:

THE GUARDIAN
"The Crimes of Mena"
March 24, 1994
By Martin Walker IN WASHINGTON
Reposted at http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/MENA/mena_summary.html

Hillary Clinton's Rose law firm is also facing scrutiny for its
role in helping the discredited Bank of Credit and Commerce
International acquire its US banking arm, First American. Rose was
the law firm for the Arkansas financial group Stephens Inc,
America's biggest investment firm outside of Wall Street, and its
associated Worthen bank.
Stephens Inc owned part of the holding company, Financial
General, which controlled the First National Bank of Georgia.
Stephens Inc and the Rose law firm helped BCCI to creep into the US
banking market through its purchase of shares in Financial General.
This in turn leads on to the murky world of bond-trading and
whether the Nicaraguan contras were being financed by
cocaine-smuggling. Governor Clinton was indeed the only Democrat to
send his state National Guard to Honduras to train alongside the
contras.

[LuvLoogie]

25. At the end of the report in the second video

it said that eight major unions endorsed her candidacy in 2008. I suppose an 8-second sound bite trumps eight union endorsements.

I hope she recalls that confident, early-90s demeanor during her campaign. It will also serve her well during the inevitable Benghazi/email/Laugh-gate hearings.

[freshwest]

40. Rather telling, that. Perhaps no one else watched the video. n/t

[Thinkingabout]

26. Guess Bernie supporters do not believe in Bernie enough to stop these threads and you want me to

Vote for Bernie, why?

[JDPriestly]

28. It's history. It's Hillary's history. It will come out sooner or later.

It's what Hillary has to deal with. It's her past. It isn't that it is so horrible. It's just that Bernie has a cleaner record when it comes to supporting working people.

[Thinkingabout]

29. Don't think you are quiet right on supporting working people but you are entitled to your opinion.

Do think it helps to convince anyone to vote for Bernie? I am aware of Hillary's record, I like her record better than I like Bernie and his stand on issues.

I don't think it is necessary to bring out Bernie's record, we don't have anything to gain by giving his record over and over.

[JDPriestly]

30. I like Bernie's record. All we get from Hillary's fans is a cut and paste of her voting record

which is liberal but not startling or even that interesting.

I'm sorry if my bringing out Bernie's record seems unnecessary to you. I can understand how that record could make a Hillary fan uncomfortable.

I think we should talk about the candidates' records and stances as often as possible because we are going to be voting in the primaries and we all want the best candidate.

I happen to think that the best candidate will be Bernie Sanders. You disagree with me. A lot of people like Hillary or think they do. But what do they really know about her?

Not that much. She is a name, but her views and her personality have not really been put to the test that is needed if she is to prove that she would be the best candidate in the primary.

That is why we need a primary.

[DhhD]

34. Yes. After the appointees of Obama, we need to look into the past of, those primarying each other.

[Thinkingabout]

39. I think a DNC primary isvery important. I have been saying this for a long time, thought it was

important in past elections also. Bernie and Hillary are together on many issues and seems different on other issues, ergo, in my opinion I like Hillary's stand on these issues more so I will be backing her.

I post Hillary's record to many people who make false claims against her and her record. Some of the talking points are past ridiculous at best and actually some of the same you hear on RW talk shows. If those who are posting this are Bernie supporters then I don't see why they do not post Bernie's record and give information which pushes his agenda. Talking about Hillary is so old it is not effective and turns into the same reaction as RW talking points.

I am looking forward to the primary, to the debates and seeing possible other candidates entering so as to have good intelligent debates promoting the DNC platform. I sure do not want to see the GOP clown car primary for the DNC.

[leveymg]

46. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil . . .

until the very last second

[Android3.14]

31. She was "only" 42 then

Everyone knows people change their core principals after their 40s. She was just starting out 24 years after high school, spreading her middle-aged wings, finding her postgraduate school self, trying new ideas, Right?

So much for the "it was 25 years ago" crowd.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

37. WalMart circa 1990

is a COMPLETELY different beast than WalMart now. In 1990, Sam Walton was still running things, wages were competitive (for the time), they weren't a grocery store mega-giant (they were an alternative to Sears and K-Mart), and they sold primarily goods Made In The USA.

WalMart today is run by Sam's terrible kids, sells the majority of our imported goods from China, and treats and pays it's workers like shit, all while opening way too many mega grocery stores, putting mom and pops out of business. Apples and oranges.

[Raine1967]

43. SEe My post just below yours, Dr Hobbitstein.

I agree for the most part!

[Raine1967]

42. She was on the board from 1986-1992.

Sam Walton died in 1992.

While I do believe there is some criticism to be had here, I think Wal-Mart has gotten FAR FAR worse since then. I am not excusing her — per say, but I think this is pretty weak sauce. It was a different company before the kids took it over.

I do believe that her distancing from Wal-Mart is a very good thing. People can change.

If someone can show me where Wal-Mart Employees needed financial assistance from the U.S. government as a systemic need prior to 1992 I might be willing to take this more seriously.