US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7439

On May 03 2017 13:18 LegalLord wrote:
If I were sitting on something as juicy as the DNC leaks when the situation looked like it was just about ready to explode, though, I'd say it would almost be a crime not to release them. That was just perfect timing to inflame a crisis already ready to come to a boil.

With unemployment low and economic growth expected to bounce back from a slow first quarter, consumers are not in bad shape. But it has been an especially terrible year so far for retailers.

Nine U.S. chains have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Store closures are accelerating, and almost 90,000 retail workers have lost their jobs since October.

Experts say the industry's troubles are just beginning.

"The disruption is just unfolding," says Mark Cohen, a former CEO of Sears Canada who now directs retail studies at Columbia Business School. "I think the number of store closings will continue at an accelerated pace right through this year into next year."

It's not that consumers are being more cautious. Spending is up, but most of that growth is online. Traditional brick-and-mortar stores are grappling with intense transformation of their business to be more Web-based and trying to reconcile their old business model with one in which profit margins are thinner.

Cohen says retailers typically reassess their businesses after the holiday shopping numbers come in and adjust by closing or reallocating resources. For some big national chains this year, that process is resulting in a bloodbath.

The Limited, BCBG Max Azria and Radio Shack filed for bankruptcy. So far, 3,100 store locations have closed in 2017 — more than all of last year combined. J.C. Penney said it would close an additional 138 stores this year, Sears and its Kmart brand intend to close 150 stores, and Macy's will shut down 100 stores.

There are 1,200 malls in the U.S. — the most ever, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Experts agree there is simply too much real estate devoted to retail. Cohen says all but the best-performing malls — which make up roughly a third of those enclosed malls — will have to close or find a new identity. In fact, many are being redeveloped to include office space, apartments, gyms or smaller retail space.

"It's not clear what we're going to look like on the other side when this is all over, if it in fact is ever all over," Cohen says.

Matthew Shay, CEO of the National Retail Federation, says historically, changes in retail have happened slowly. Not so today. "The velocity of change is unlike anything we've ever seen," he says. "Before, things happened over a generation; now they're happening overnight."

Shay says retail's workforce needs are shifting, which is why the trade group launched a program offering certification to laid-off workers in January, hoping to retrain them with higher-level skills that are in demand. "They'll be in operations; they'll be in warehousing; they'll be in store management; they'll be in digital," he says.

(The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 89,000 general merchandising workers have been laid off since October, a number that excludes gas, grocery and online sales.)

Marshal Cohen (no relation to Mark Cohen), chief retail analyst for The NPD Group, says brick-and-mortar stores aren't just competing with rivals; their sales are being cannibalized by their own online operations, where profit margins are thinner.

On May 03 2017 15:59 Danglars wrote:

Such as? I'm a little inured to the heightening of terms. Calling protesters vermin? Clearly racism, treating black people like animals, denying their humanity (but that one's getting close). Et cetera.

Obligatory: Casual conspiracy theorist (trying to fuck people over for slave labor), casual sexism (large congregation of shitty males, because mixed congregations wouldn't suffer from it). You score two points.

All this makes me think that your previous stabs at being reasonable (Americans work together for the greater good of Americans, Capitalism is basically fine, or Clean this mess up) are either disingenuous from the start, or haven't been examined with the least bit of care. You will end up making more people glad they voted for the non-Hillary candidate and peel off nobody. The goal is to sound less crazy than the other team, and conscripting slaves, hunting animals, and shitty males in the gaming community means you're smack dab in the crazy camp. The left's version of a bible-thumping, flag-carrying, pot belly middle-aged white male with a MAGA hat.

On May 03 2017 21:17 opisska wrote:
The whole pre-existing condition (let's call it PEC) thing only shows how silly the US system is and how absurd the whole idea of health managed by individual insurance is. What I find confusing is how nobody really calls it out on it and most of the discussion dwells on individual technicalities within a system that doesn't make sense as a whole. Some people (with a serious chronic condition) will need a lot more money in health expenses over their lifetime than others and the only way to fund it, without leaving the poor ones with bad health to die, is to redistribute money between people, individual insurance will never solve it, because there is no point in shuffling expenses in time when they are high most of the time. If you want to treat poor sick people, you need money from the rich and healthy ones, you can't both have the cake and eat it. It is really that simple. The fact that you even have to deal with the PEC problem shows that this problem is just not correctly understood. If you want to play the pretend game of "health insurance" instead of just funding everything from taxes, it needs to be a universal tax anyway - that is, everyone needs to be insured all the time, so that the situation that someone seeks insurance and has a PEC can never even occur.

On May 03 2017 22:22 biology]major wrote:
If you're going to have preexisting coverage then the penalty for not having insurance needs to go up and there has to be a way for someone in Arizona to get insurance from a company in Wisconsin. Sigh this is why you don't give entitlements, can't take them away.

On May 03 2017 22:24 Plansix wrote:
Insurance crossing state lines is a crazy concept anyways. You don’t see a lot of other types of insurance offering coverage nationwide. And if they do, it is normally a brokerage firm of some sort. People from New Jersey are not going to be able to find insurance companies in MA willing to cover them.

On May 03 2017 22:14 Reaper9 wrote:


Then explain to me why the legal system screws over people so terribly for minor drug offenses, leading them to life sentences in prison. For profit prisons are quite a well documented thing in the United States. Inmates are subjected to working in sweatshops, with little to minimal pay. And given the drug epidemic has now even spread beyond what was originally imagined, it is more crucial than ever to address the abuses that goes on in our nation. Why is nearly 2% of our adult population in jail? When you approach it from a profit viewpoint, the meaning behind the actions become all too clear.

Casual sexism huh. I can make an observation about my peers on the internet, where the male dominated culture says demeaning things, then cover it up saying "it is a joke bro". No, it isn't a joke, you've normalized what you just said on the internet, and this runs rampant. And you guessed it, most of the groups being targeted are minorities.

The only reason Teamliquid seems clean at all is because the the admins clean house and slam the hammer repeatedly on offenders. Then people have the audacity to cry free speech, using that as an excuse for their unrestrained barbarity. Most of the offending people got the message and now stay away because of Teamliquid's actual enforcement of decency, but there are still a few martyrs here and there.

I really don't need to go into examples of where Teamliquiders were banned for saying stupid things, particularly in the political threads now do I? Go outside of Teamliquid, and its like a war-zone of utter human cesspools. I'm pretty sure people have butted heads with you about this Danglars.

And there are repeated attempts for the police force, in departments spanning across the country, to cover up their improper conduct and hush any inside investigations.

I mean, you can apply that to the Catholic Church, with their continued practice of hiding their pedophile priests, letting them "undergo therapy" and then returning them to active service. Well documented by now too. A cursory glance in wikipedia says a lot on the subject, but further research is always appreciated.

+ Show Spoiler +

None of these are pleasant to face, and perhaps I could message it in a more pleasant way, but perhaps for these sort of topics, it is inevitable that would rub people the wrong way. Messaging where messaging is due, and giving people face is important I suppose.

On May 03 2017 22:40 Sadist wrote:




Ya think of how much of a hassle in and out of network already is.

On May 03 2017 22:29 Gorsameth wrote:

Yeah man, why don't people with a chronic condition do the right thing and just kill themselves rather then be a burden on society.

On May 03 2017 23:26 biology]major wrote:


We have Medicare and Medicaid, the rest can just buy insurance like everyone else before getting sick. If they were born with an illness or develop in childhood, then they can get insurance through their parents (a great provision). It's the people who don't have insurance, get sick and try to get it after the fact that I don't like.

On May 03 2017 23:26 biology]major wrote:


We have Medicare and Medicaid, the rest can just buy insurance like everyone else before getting sick. If they were born with an illness or develop in childhood, then they can get insurance through their parents (a great provision). It's the people who don't have insurance, get sick and try to get it after the fact that I don't like.

It's the people who don't have insurance, get sick and try to get it after the fact that I don't like.

On May 03 2017 23:35 a_flayer wrote:
You should get up in arms about immigrants Plansix. They took away your chance to work a second job so you'd be able to afford health care. Like that cop who got fired from his second job at Wallmart.

On May 03 2017 23:33 Plansix wrote:

My wife does not qualify for either of those and has a PEC. Without the ACA, no insurance would cover her at an affordable rate. Are we just supposed to go bankruptcy because of bad luck?

Also my wife has no parents. What the fuck are people who don’t have families supposed to do in your system?

On May 03 2017 23:48 biology]major wrote:


What condition and why no insurance prior to it?