Windstream Corporation (NYSE: WIN) is certainly not alone in its efforts to thwart the badly economic recovery in America. It’s pretty much business as usual in the corporate world – just as it seems to be business as usual in the financial industry and politics as usual in Washington.

In late September the shareholders of D & E Communications of Ephrata, Pennsylvania voted to approve a merger with Windstream. Each shareholder would be able to exchange D & E shares for .65 Windstream shares plus $5.00.

Windstream Corporation of Little Rock, Arkansas, came into existence in July 2006 when Little Rock’s Alltel Corporation (since purchased by Verizon) spun off its wireline phone division and merged it with Valor Communications Group, Inc. of Irving Texas. In 2007 Windstream acquired CT Communications Inc. of Concord, North Carolina. What followed were layoffs in Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas and North Carolina.

Then there was the September announcement that Windstream would reduce its workforce by 5% by the end of 2009. Oh, yeah – about D & E. Of the 490 employees in Pennsylvania, 290 are out the door, or will be soon. Two of Windstreams Internet Data Centers are being moved from Little Rock to Pennsylvania and, while the company has said no one in Little Rock will lose their jobs, they probably should be working their job contact list.

Windstream has, of course, performed other cost-cutting measures like moving call center operations to India.

What’s Wrong in America?

Corporations no longer care about being community citizens. Oh, sure, they pressure their employees to make payroll deductible contributions to this charity or that charity. And they call that corporate citizenship. They may even put on t-shirts and join some walk or run for some worthy cause. But, all the time, they are buying and selling other companies and moving jobs overseas.

Why do they do this? You know the answer already. They want to impress the stock analysts. So here’s my thought: you cannot be a good corporate citizen when you put people out of work to please someone on Wall Street. But I forgot. It was favorable thoughts from Wall Street that led to banks allowing Windstream to re-wire its loans so it could buy more companies and lay off more workers.

So, what can we do to correct this situation? HellifIknow!

Phishing ain’t fishing. Fishing is big business in Arkansas what with all the bass and trout honey holes in the state. And it’s just simply impossible to resist a plate full of golden fried crappie or bream (pronounced brim and also known as perch).

Phishing, on the other side of a shiny coin, is what thieves and folks with no moral values do to unsuspecting wonderful people like you who fail to learn from history and, thus, remain quite stupid. However, I do realize that some folks have just emerged from their caves and haven’t heard of this stuff which puts them in the Ignorant category; they are not stupid, yet.

Phishing counts on people being greedy and wantin something for nothin. And that’s probably why it’s most related to financial type stuff ’cause there ain’t nobody greedier than a banker or Wall Street person. And I thought long and hard about that statement because of the oil companies, corporations and Republicans. Now, I readily admit that a whole slew of Democrats have sold us down the river recently (think Health Care Reform) and I’m on the brink of throwing Barack Obama into that group.

Beware of Greedy Phishermen

A phisherman (used generically because there are probably some criminal-type women involved as well) ranks right down there with the aforementioned scum of the earth. Here’s a recent example dated May 17, 2009 and the email subject line is "# Hi, We Recruiting Officer (Human Resource Dept.) #" Now, the subject line itself ought to give you reason for pause. This email was written by a fellow named William Crawford who lists an email address of william2281@gmail.com. Here’s what he says.

We at Market World are a world class textile firm located in the United Kingdom and seek payment Personnel of our direct payments from customers in the United States. Below is the information about the Job.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR US?

The international money transfer tax for corporate entities (companies) is 19%, whereas for the individual it is only 4%. For this reason, We are recruiting and deploying agents to receive payments for our textiles (in money orders, cheques or bank transfers) on our behalf and then forward the money to us via Money Gram or Western Union Money Transfer. There will be profit maximization by operating in this manner.

There’s a lot more to the email like you getting a 10% commission and how the "job" requires no education, no going to an office and how you can earn a promotion. (continued below)

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Yes, phishing schemes count on you being stupid. And they work because the world is filled with stupid people; they’re not all in Washington, D.C. You see, here’s how it works. You receive a payment from "somebody" for "some reason." You must move fast in order to be promoted. You deposit the payment into your bank account. You then withdraw 90% of what you deposited, run down to the Western Union store and send it as fast as you can to the Market Health folks.

A day or two later, the money you deposited bounces because of insufficient funds. To make matters worse than they already are, your bank will probably charge you a hefty fee for depositing an insufficient check. Yes, you will feel stupid for falling hook, line and sinker for this scam. That’s a natural reaction to being stupid and doing stupid things. You are not alone. Read what others are saying.

Beware of MobileMe phishing scam – Several TUAW readers have contacted us about a MobileMe phishing scam. These readers are getting an email that looks surprisingly official (see below). When they click on the Log In button, they’re going to a page that has already been …

Another Facebook Phishing Scam Gets users Passwords – Where Geeks go to relax Spotlighting Technology, Fun, Gadgets, Games – GeeG.

Online Safety Advice: How to Recognize Phishing Emails? : MyOrbit Live – Beware of phishing email scams, which typically come as emails that claim that they are from a company that you most likely do business with, such as your Bank, PayPal or eBay. They will tell you that you need to go to the site, …

The best, however, must be this one:

Banks Blacklist Phishing Victim – A man in England who was victimized by a phishing scam found himself being blamed for it by his bank. 19-year-old Billy Brown got a phishing email claiming to be from the bank, and a few days later a check for a little over 8,000 pounds-roughly $11,000-was deposited into his account, and later a withdrawal for the same amount was made. Not surprisingly the check bounced, leaving Brown’s account overdrawn. What is surprising is that the bank immediately closed his account and blacklisted his credit rating because it insists Brown knowingly gave his bank info to the scammers, inferring that Brown himself may be one. Because of their actions not one bank in the UK will give him an account.