Breakdown In Civil Order

[Jimmy Higgins]

The fact remains that people are leaving California and the Bay Area in record numbers. There seems to be a disconnect here with the survey results.

That's about price, not so much quality of life. It's very difficult to find affordable housing here, and a lot of the jobs that were bringing people into the area went remote during the pandemic, making it seem less necesary to live nearby.

Lists like these mean exactly as much as they mean. They are probably valid reflections of the criteria they used to pick them out, but nothing more than that.

There is plenty of affordable housing in California. It is just that there is a linearly proportional relationship to affordable housing and flammability.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Walmart has said it is permanently closing its last two stores in Portland - months after its CEO warned of a historic rise in thefts. The sites, located at the Delta Park and Eastport Plaza shopping centers in North and Southeast Portland, will shutter on March 24. The retail giants said it is closing the stores - which serve as a haven for low-income shoppers across the city - because they were not meeting financial expectations. That said, the closures serve as the latest instance of businesses relocating or closing shop altogether amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness. The mass exodus has been carried out by owners fed-up with the Portland's sad state, and officials' subsequent failure to quell both crises.

Daily Mail

Policies matter.

Lefty policies usually hurt those they claim they're trying to help.

*nods* Social security and Medicare for starters.

 

[Oleg]

Walmart has said it is permanently closing its last two stores in Portland - months after its CEO warned of a historic rise in thefts. The sites, located at the Delta Park and Eastport Plaza shopping centers in North and Southeast Portland, will shutter on March 24. The retail giants said it is closing the stores - which serve as a haven for low-income shoppers across the city - because they were not meeting financial expectations. That said, the closures serve as the latest instance of businesses relocating or closing shop altogether amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness. The mass exodus has been carried out by owners fed-up with the Portland's sad state, and officials' subsequent failure to quell both crises.

Daily Mail

Policies matter.

Lefty policies usually hurt those they claim they're trying to help.

*nods* Social security and Medicare for starters.

That’s fair. Not everyone with a left-leaning orientation promotes bad policies or is blind to consequences. But the progressives who took over the left sure are. What’s happening in Portland was entirely predictable.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Walmart has said it is permanently closing its last two stores in Portland - months after its CEO warned of a historic rise in thefts. The sites, located at the Delta Park and Eastport Plaza shopping centers in North and Southeast Portland, will shutter on March 24. The retail giants said it is closing the stores - which serve as a haven for low-income shoppers across the city - because they were not meeting financial expectations. That said, the closures serve as the latest instance of businesses relocating or closing shop altogether amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness. The mass exodus has been carried out by owners fed-up with the Portland's sad state, and officials' subsequent failure to quell both crises.

Daily Mail

Policies matter.

Lefty policies usually hurt those they claim they're trying to help.

*nods* Social security and Medicare for starters.

That’s fair. Not everyone with a left-leaning orientation promotes bad policies or is blind to consequences. But the progressives who took over the left sure are. What’s happening in Portland was entirely predictable.

I'm looking at the Democrat Party and wondering where the heck this progressive takeover is. We've elected two Democrat Presidents after two remarkably poor Republican Presidents, and both were moderates. And while gerrymandering has allowed radicals to become more common in the House, the Democrats aren't the party of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether.

 

[Politesse]

The fact remains that people are leaving California and the Bay Area in record numbers. There seems to be a disconnect here with the survey results.

That's about price, not so much quality of life. It's very difficult to find affordable housing here, and a lot of the jobs that were bringing people into the area went remote during the pandemic, making it seem less necesary to live nearby.

Lists like these mean exactly as much as they mean. They are probably valid reflections of the criteria they used to pick them out, but nothing more than that.

There is plenty of affordable housing in California. It is just that there is a linearly proportional relationship to affordable housing and flammability.

Where did you get that idea? Properties in nice wooded areas aren't necessarily cheap, and they become less so by the year. If you live anywhere with open land around you, life is probably getting harder and harder, and certainly more expensive, unless you're on the "other side of the K".

 

[Politesse]

Apparently, spin matters more.

The only link between crime and the closure of these stores, is an hypothesis being proposed by the Daily Mail, that is contradicted by the plain text of the Walmart announcement, which tells us that the closure is "because they were not meeting financial expectations".

The only evidence they have is a vague reference to a comment made months ago by the CEO (what, exactly did he say? Did he mention these two stores specifically? Did he mention Portland? Or did he just happen to mention, months ago, that thefts were increasing at Walmart stores in general?).

The other part that was bolded is pure speculation; They don't even dare to draw a connection themselves, and just insinuate it using the weasel word "amid".

When you're being manipulated so effectively that you start evangelising for the manipulator, it's clear that you aren't in the habit of looking for signs that you are being misled. But those signs are so glaring in that text, that I find it astonishing that anyone could read it without rolling their eyes so hard that they can see their brain.

Was going to observe all of this myself, then saw you'd beaten me to it.

Also, am I supposed to feel sad that a fucking Walmart is closing? Talk about policies that hurt those they're aimed at... is the idea here that we should be bending over backwards to hold on to small-business-murdering megastores? Walmart does have unique problems with shoplifting, and always has. This is partly because people fucking hate them, partly due to the popular perception that stealing from Walmart is a victimless crime, and partly because they destroy the economic life surrounding them for miles upon miles while making themselves the most common yet least loved employer of the down and out. The metastatic cancer of American retail.

 

[Politesse]

You can find a listing of all the Walmart stores known closing this year here.

Apparently the scourge of "Lefty Policies" has escaped the Lefty States entirely, and has started infecting such faraway locales as Arkansas and Florida. How did the Progressive Threat manage to sneak their policies into those states, I wonder?

 

[Toni]

Apparently, spin matters more.

The only link between crime and the closure of these stores, is an hypothesis being proposed by the Daily Mail, that is contradicted by the plain text of the Walmart announcement, which tells us that the closure is "because they were not meeting financial expectations".

The only evidence they have is a vague reference to a comment made months ago by the CEO (what, exactly did he say? Did he mention these two stores specifically? Did he mention Portland? Or did he just happen to mention, months ago, that thefts were increasing at Walmart stores in general?).

The other part that was bolded is pure speculation; They don't even dare to draw a connection themselves, and just insinuate it using the weasel word "amid".

When you're being manipulated so effectively that you start evangelising for the manipulator, it's clear that you aren't in the habit of looking for signs that you are being misled. But those signs are so glaring in that text, that I find it astonishing that anyone could read it without rolling their eyes so hard that they can see their brain.

Was going to observe all of this myself, then saw you'd beaten me to it.

Also, am I supposed to feel sad that a fucking Walmart is closing? Talk about policies that hurt those they're aimed at... is the idea here that we should be bending over backwards to hold on to small-business-murdering megastores? Walmart does have unique problems with shoplifting, and always has. This is partly because people fucking hate them, partly due to the popular perception that stealing from Walmart is a victimless crime, and partly because they destroy the economic life surrounding them for miles upon miles while making themselves the most common yet least loved employer of the down and out. The metastatic cancer of American retail.

No shit. But they are nearly impossible to keep out of your town if they decide they want to be there. Spoken as someone who worked against them coming to her town and even had environmental impact statements backing my side up. In the case of my town, it fits in well with the ethos that workers cannot be paid a decent wage and can't afford nice things so let there be Walmart. Seriously: Target is the most upscale store where I live. Fucking Target.

 

[Politesse]

Apparently, spin matters more.

The only link between crime and the closure of these stores, is an hypothesis being proposed by the Daily Mail, that is contradicted by the plain text of the Walmart announcement, which tells us that the closure is "because they were not meeting financial expectations".

The only evidence they have is a vague reference to a comment made months ago by the CEO (what, exactly did he say? Did he mention these two stores specifically? Did he mention Portland? Or did he just happen to mention, months ago, that thefts were increasing at Walmart stores in general?).

The other part that was bolded is pure speculation; They don't even dare to draw a connection themselves, and just insinuate it using the weasel word "amid".

When you're being manipulated so effectively that you start evangelising for the manipulator, it's clear that you aren't in the habit of looking for signs that you are being misled. But those signs are so glaring in that text, that I find it astonishing that anyone could read it without rolling their eyes so hard that they can see their brain.

Was going to observe all of this myself, then saw you'd beaten me to it.

Also, am I supposed to feel sad that a fucking Walmart is closing? Talk about policies that hurt those they're aimed at... is the idea here that we should be bending over backwards to hold on to small-business-murdering megastores? Walmart does have unique problems with shoplifting, and always has. This is partly because people fucking hate them, partly due to the popular perception that stealing from Walmart is a victimless crime, and partly because they destroy the economic life surrounding them for miles upon miles while making themselves the most common yet least loved employer of the down and out. The metastatic cancer of American retail.

No shit. But they are nearly impossible to keep out of your town if they decide they want to be there. Spoken as someone who worked against them coming to her town and even had environmental impact statements backing my side up. In the case of my town, it fits in well with the ethos that workers cannot be paid a decent wage and can't afford nice things so let there be Walmart. Seriously: Target is the most upscale store where I live. Fucking Target.

Well, Portland seems to have won the battle. People are going to have to drive down to Southgate now if they want that sweet Sam Walton smell on their plastic goods.

Good news for the Fred Meyer chain, who I would consider the most likely culprit in all of this (rather than shoplifting). They offer similar sevices, from a lot more locations.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No shit. But they are nearly impossible to keep out of your town if they decide they want to be there. Spoken as someone who worked against them coming to her town and even had environmental impact statements backing my side up. In the case of my town, it fits in well with the ethos that workers cannot be paid a decent wage and can't afford nice things so let there be Walmart. Seriously: Target is the most upscale store where I live. Fucking Target.

If Walmart actually paid less they wouldn't be able to hire workers.

 

[Toni]

No shit. But they are nearly impossible to keep out of your town if they decide they want to be there. Spoken as someone who worked against them coming to her town and even had environmental impact statements backing my side up. In the case of my town, it fits in well with the ethos that workers cannot be paid a decent wage and can't afford nice things so let there be Walmart. Seriously: Target is the most upscale store where I live. Fucking Target.

If Walmart actually paid less they wouldn't be able to hire workers.

Depends on the market. My town is geographically distant from the next larger town. Many employers in this town do not offer full time hours. Only dince the pandemic have factories in my town begun to offer semi-decent raises. People where I live have few employment options. A lot of people work 2 or 3 jobs to cover rent.

Walmart offers low wages because it sets up businesses where people have few other choices for shopping or employment.

 

[Politesse]

No shit. But they are nearly impossible to keep out of your town if they decide they want to be there. Spoken as someone who worked against them coming to her town and even had environmental impact statements backing my side up. In the case of my town, it fits in well with the ethos that workers cannot be paid a decent wage and can't afford nice things so let there be Walmart. Seriously: Target is the most upscale store where I live. Fucking Target.

If Walmart actually paid less they wouldn't be able to hire workers.

Oh, you sweet summer child. That's not how businesses work, outside of textbooks. Kill the competition, take the spoils.

 

[Oleg]

Good news for the Fred Meyer chain, who I would consider the most likely culprit in all of this (rather than shoplifting).

Amazing.

 

[Politesse]

Good news for the Fred Meyer chain, who I would consider the most likely culprit in all of this (rather than shoplifting).

Amazing.

That someone would dare to speak economic sense rather than engage in histrionic and groundless finger-pointing?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No shit. But they are nearly impossible to keep out of your town if they decide they want to be there. Spoken as someone who worked against them coming to her town and even had environmental impact statements backing my side up. In the case of my town, it fits in well with the ethos that workers cannot be paid a decent wage and can't afford nice things so let there be Walmart. Seriously: Target is the most upscale store where I live. Fucking Target.

If Walmart actually paid less they wouldn't be able to hire workers.

Depends on the market. My town is geographically distant from the next larger town. Many employers in this town do not offer full time hours. Only dince the pandemic have factories in my town begun to offer semi-decent raises. People where I live have few employment options. A lot of people work 2 or 3 jobs to cover rent.

Walmart offers low wages because it sets up businesses where people have few other choices for shopping or employment.

Walmart wages are fairly low--but generally higher than the businesses it's taking workers from.

 

[Toni]

No shit. But they are nearly impossible to keep out of your town if they decide they want to be there. Spoken as someone who worked against them coming to her town and even had environmental impact statements backing my side up. In the case of my town, it fits in well with the ethos that workers cannot be paid a decent wage and can't afford nice things so let there be Walmart. Seriously: Target is the most upscale store where I live. Fucking Target.

If Walmart actually paid less they wouldn't be able to hire workers.

Depends on the market. My town is geographically distant from the next larger town. Many employers in this town do not offer full time hours. Only dince the pandemic have factories in my town begun to offer semi-decent raises. People where I live have few employment options. A lot of people work 2 or 3 jobs to cover rent.

Walmart offers low wages because it sets up businesses where people have few other choices for shopping or employment.

Walmart wages are fairly low--but generally higher than the businesses it's taking workers from.

That doesn't address the issue: Walmart sets up businesses where people have few other choices for employment of shopping. Walmart's workforce is largely part time with unpredictable schedules making it difficult or impossible to have/maintain a second or third job to make ends meet. Walmart removes opportunity from non-employees for more diverse, local shopping opportunities. And when the market begins to tank--and it usually does---Walmart simply pulls out, leaving a big empty box to go along with all the local empty store fronts from businesses it out-competed.

 

[TomC]

No shit. But they are nearly impossible to keep out of your town if they decide they want to be there. Spoken as someone who worked against them coming to her town and even had environmental impact statements backing my side up. In the case of my town, it fits in well with the ethos that workers cannot be paid a decent wage and can't afford nice things so let there be Walmart. Seriously: Target is the most upscale store where I live. Fucking Target.

If Walmart actually paid less they wouldn't be able to hire workers.

Depends on the market. My town is geographically distant from the next larger town. Many employers in this town do not offer full time hours. Only dince the pandemic have factories in my town begun to offer semi-decent raises. People where I live have few employment options. A lot of people work 2 or 3 jobs to cover rent.

Walmart offers low wages because it sets up businesses where people have few other choices for shopping or employment.

Walmart wages are fairly low--but generally higher than the businesses it's taking workers from.

That doesn't address the issue: Walmart sets up businesses where people have few other choices for employment of shopping. Walmart's workforce is largely part time with unpredictable schedules making it difficult or impossible to have/maintain a second or third job to make ends meet. Walmart removes opportunity from non-employees for more diverse, local shopping opportunities. And when the market begins to tank--and it usually does---Walmart simply pulls out, leaving a big empty box to go along with all the local empty store fronts from businesses it out-competed.

That's exactly what happened in my town.

Deep pockets Wal-Mart opened. They ran specials on tons of stuff until they'd driven many small, family style, businesses out.

Then they cranked up their prices and hired the unemployed for bare subsistence wages.

I'm pretty sure Wal-Mart's pattern of destruction is well known.

I've been in there at Christmas time, with little signs around the store asking shoppers to donate to the desperately poor Wal-Mart employees by buying stuff from Wal-Mart and putting it in a shopping cart by the exit.

Seriously, the Walton family billionaires are that shameless and predatory.
Tom

 

[repoman]

The robber need 20+ years of time served

 

[Trebaxian Vir]

\(\)What American right-wing authoritarians say they want:
Freedom

What American right-wing authoritarians say they don't want:
Lawlessness

What American right-wing authoritarians don't understand:
Irony

Freedom is when people who look and behave like me say "fuck your rules, you can't tell me how to live!"

Lawlessness is when people who don't look or behave like me say "fuck your rules, you can't tell me how to live!"

It's the American way!

"Can you believe these Republicans? They use the right-hemispheres of their brains. What idiots!"
"Oh yeah, well you Democrats are evil because you use the left hemisphere of your brains!"
"At least we don't use the right hemisphere of our brains, unlike you morons."

 

[lpetrich]

AOC says Bronx gun violence program should be national model - Gothamist

Now in its ninth year, the initiative called Stand Up to Violence has treated over 1,700 victims of violent trauma and reduced gun violence in the community by 59%, according to hospital staffers involved in the program. They recently published their findings in a pediatric medical journal. Ocasio-Cortez said the results show that the program could be a model for the rest of the country.

“What we're here to talk about is what works,” Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday during a visit exclusively accompanied by a Gothamist reporter. “And this is one of the only things that has been clinically proven to stop violence.”

About AOC,

A frequent target of Republicans and even some moderate Democrats, she argued that politics should be irrelevant in the face of data-backed programs like Stand Up to Violence.

“Let’s put our differences aside,” she said. “Show me what you have done that is clinically proven to reduce violence in your community.”

“Because I'll show you mine,” she added.