The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.15           April 14, 1997 
 
 
The Great Society  

BY HARRY RING
Well, natch - David Colter, top dog at BankAmerica, "earned" $3.54 million last year, nearly double what he got the year before. The bank is currently in the process of chopping 3,700 jobs.

Capitalism defined - Until job pressure drove him to suicide, attorney Christopher Bryan was a "highly valued" employee of James Beauchamp, a Birmingham, England, law firm. The firm sent his mother, 80, a bill for more than 12,278 for the time spent dealing with his death - sending someone to his home when he didn't show up for work, identifying the body at the morgue, etc., and including 150 for sending someone to notify her he was dead. The bill was dropped when the family went public.

Sh! - The Army staged a trial run in Charlotte, North Carolina, to ready troops for counterterrorist attacks. In the dark of night, 100 GIs from Fort Bragg in troop transports and helicopters, stormed a vacant warehouse. The noise of the choppers and simulated bombs resounded across the area. Startled residents were unable to get info from the cops.

...disinformation exercise - The day after, Charlotte's mayor, who had agreed to the Army maneuver, declared: "They said they would be in and out. Nobody would know they were here." Checking complaints of low-flying copters, a fed speculated, "Maybe they need more practice." But not in Charlotte. A slated second commando raid was canceled.

Preach, Bro - "The major barrier to health care and our success as physicians is no longer the patients' illnesses, but the [medical care] system," declared Kenneth Shelman, one of the 92 doctors at a Tucson, Arizona, medical center who voted to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

A is a - Amnesty International charged that the British government is not controlling export of torture weapons. Like, a high voltage stun gun that causes people to lose bowel control, faint or even die of heart failure. Or a stun belt which inflicts eight-second shocks on prisoners. The maker says it offers "total psychological supremacy ...of potentially troublesome prisoners."

Not to hurry - In the wake of a March 1 tornado that took 25 lives, the Arkansas legislature approved a relief bill, but Gov. Michael Huckabee refused to sign it because it called the tornado an "act of God." He contended this was a bum rap for God and insisted on "natural disaster." Finally, March 22, it was reported that a deal was struck to call it both.

Goes good with tobacco -Medical researchers report a risky level of salt in Lunchables, a meat, cheese and cracker item sold by Kraft. A serving contains 1,780 milligrams of salt, 74 percent of the recommended daily intake, and enough to raise the blood pressure of salt- sensitive people. Huffed Kraft: "...junk science at its worst....yet another attempt to frighten American consumers."

Blasphemy - Last we heard, the Church of England was weighing action against Rev. John Papworth, who told a London parish meeting on crime about the rip-off practices of supermarket chains. He said he didn't encourage shoplifting, though he didn't see it as stealing but rather as "a badly needed reallocation of economic resources."  
 
 
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