Wednesday, April 05, 2023

The economy

Not a big fan of Bob Dylan.  He was important before I was in high school.  But today, I kept thinking of his snarling, 'You've got a lot of nerve."  Why?  Business Insider reports:


The number of former Bed Bath & Beyond employees not receiving severance payments is now larger by one.



A lawsuit filed Friday in New York on behalf of former CEO Mark Tritton, who was replaced last June by Sue Gove, says the company stopped making payments on the $6.7 million severance package in January.

In addition to seeking damages, the suit is also a full-throated defense of Tritton's tenure and legacy at the helm of the struggling housewares giant.

A representative for Bed Bath & Beyond told Insider the company does not comment on legal matters. 

Tritton's legal filing contains a "surprising" level of detail about the business, GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders told Insider.

"It reads like a justification of Tritton's leadership. It's almost like he wants to defend his record and say, "Hey, I'm not to blame for all of this," Saunders said.



So you ruin the company and think you deserve millions in severance pay?  The workers don't ever get anything like that.  The golden parachute needs to be ended.  The article also reveals that Bed, Bath & Beyond could go out of business in the next 12 months per court filings.  In other business news, Reuters reports:


Burger chain McDonald's Corp is temporarily closing its U.S. offices this week as it prepares to inform corporate employees about its layoffs as part of a broader company restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

In an internal email last week to U.S. employees and some international staff, McDonald's asked them to work from home from Monday through Wednesday so it can deliver staffing decisions virtually, the report said. It is unclear how many employees will be laid off.

"During the week of April 3, we will communicate key decisions related to roles and staffing levels across the organization," the Chicago-based company said in the message viewed by the Journal.


All of that and oil prices are about to increase significantly.







This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Tuesday:


Tuesday, April 4, 2023.  PBS keeps trying to resell the Iraq War. 


The lying and whoring never ends with THE NEWSHOUR these days.  Ava and I noted last night in "TV: How they lied about Iraq and how they still lie about it" how PBS, last week, rigged the conversation about Iraq by (a) bringing on three War Hawks and (b) not challenging even the most basic lies and (c) letting them reset the goal posts yet again.  They are lying and doing it on purpose.  Their goal is to rehab the illegal war.  And they did it again last night 

Last night, they again pretended that they just wanted to talk the Iraq War and do so fairly.  Again, they pretended they wanted to know if it was worth it.  And the eight or so million Americans who watch the program in a week, if they caught the segment, might not have realized that they rigged it before they started the interview.  They rigged the outcome by the person they selected.

Was the Iraq War worth it?  Oh, let's ask Barham Salih!

Why?

And that's what PBS viewers should have been told but they weren't.

He's a Kurd.  The Kurds wanted the US to invade.  They became semi-autonomous due to the 90s Gulf War.  They wanted the US to invade.  They also make up less than 20% of Iraq's population.

They finally find an Iraqi they want to discuss the illegal war with and, low and behold, it's a Kurd.  

That's not by accident.  PBS is back to selling the Iraq War.  

They're abusing public funds in an attempt to deceive the American people and rewrite history.

Their appalling coverage is not by accident.  It is the result of their rigging the outcomes before the camera ever starts rolling.  

Here are some Tweets about PBS' abomination last week.





PBS can't stop lying about Iraq.  Even in the most nonsense garbage they're offering in the last weeks, they can't stop lying:


After the U.S. invaded Iraq 20 years ago, Iraqi American playwright and actor Heather Raffo created and starred in an acclaimed play “Nine Parts of Desire” about the lives of Iraqi women. She’s returned to the subject on film and through a distinctly American lens, setting a new version in Michigan. Jeffrey Brown went there to see the work for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.



No, she did not 'create' it after the invasion.  She wrote it before the invasion.  It has nothing to do with the 2003 invasion but she used it -- like a whore -- to sell her play.  People were kind because they were taken in.  But the reality is, the story of Iraq's never going to be told in a (bad) one-woman play.

She's a bad paste and cutter (don't call her a playwright) and she's a bad actress.  And she does her cookie-cutter pretense on this injustice or that and they never amount to a damn thing because she tries to tug at your heart while ignoring the realities of what leads to the conflicts.

But, again, she wrote it before the 2003 invasion.  Even that basic fact, PBS couldn't get right last week.

Here's Mona Chalabi, at THE GUARDIAN yesterday, providing some of the reality that PBS refuses to address in their coverage:


The US assault on Iraq that began 20 years ago has left a toxic legacy worse than that of the Hiroshima bombing, according to a study that looked at cancer rates and infant mortality.

After the bombing in Japan, the rates of leukemia among those living closest to the detonation increased by a devastating 660%, about 12 to 13 years after the bomb (which is when radiation levels peaked). In Falluja, leukemia rates increased by 2,200% in a much shorter space of time, averaged just five to 10 years after the bombings. Anecdotally, doctors in Iraq began reporting a big increase in cancer rates as well as congenital anomalies (commonly referred to as “birth defects”) after the US began bombing the country. The research, led by Dr Christopher Busby while he was at the University of Ulster, showed that the doctors’ observations were backed up by data.

In addition to the huge increase in leukemia, Busby and his colleagues found a 1,260% increase in rates of childhood cancer in Falluja after the US bombing as well as a 740% increase in brain tumors. They also found evidence that Iraqis had been exposed to radiation, as infant mortality rates were 820% higher than in neighboring Kuwait.




 What the Tatars did to Iraq in 1258, the Americans did again when they destroyed a sovereign country. Not even Iraqi artefacts were spared; they were stolen along with the country's wealth.

The US occupation fuelled hateful sectarianism which ignited sedition, making sectarianism the most prominent political headline for the regime that Paul Bremer, the US appointee and de facto head of Iraq after its occupation, put in place. He said explicitly in a TV interview that although the Shia in Iraq represent about 70 per cent of the population, Iraq was being governed by its Sunni minority and that it was time to fix this mistake and restore balance to the country.

This malicious man turned Iraq into an arena for terrorism and internal strife. He destroyed the state institutions, dismantled the army and security forces, dismissing officers and soldiers to be replaced by Shia militias that are loyal to Iran. They killed according to religious identity in a country that was a national model of one homeland and one people.

Bremer added Iraqi state officials to the terrorist lists, including ministers, senior army officers and scholars in order to liquidate them. It is painful to see Iraqi scholars being targeted for kidnapping and killing; many have had to migrate to save their lives. Despite this, some were not spared liquidation, even outside of Iraq.


By the way, that was one of the findings of the Chilcot Inquiry in the United Kingdom  (Bremer's disbanding the Iraqi army destroyed Iraq)  -- a fact PBS pretends to be blissfully unaware of as they allowed Paul Wolfowitz to lie on air last week -- allowed and encouraged.

Meanwhile, let's turn to noted homophobe and transphobe Jonathan Turley.  Shutting down productions, implementing laws where you can't say "gay" in Florida, all of these and more should concern someone who purports to be a free speech advocate.  

Yet silly Jonathan, 61-years-old (remember that), hasn't said a peep.

Why?

Because he works for FOX "NEWS."  They pay the bills and Jonathan doesn't bite the hand that feeds him.  So while they've launched an attack on LGBTQ+ persons that has lasted over a year -- an attack so bad that they are seeing people cancelling subscriptions to FOX NATION over it -- an attack so bad that they've had to come up with an offer to try to get those people back ($1.99 a month if you will just return -- but they aren't returning) -- he's not said a word.

And he just gets more and more ridiculous. 

As the volume of people calling him out online increases (and includes in the comments of his transphobe threads at his website), Jonathan finally decided to wade in last Saturday.  It was laughable:


A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new Tennessee law limiting drag shows on constitutional grounds. Like many, I have been appalled by some images of very young children watching highly sexualized routines in schools or businesses. However, many of these events are held off school grounds and with the support of their parents. As a parent of four, I cannot imagine taking my kids to some of these shows, but we all raise our kids according to our own values. 


What images, you stupid ass.  There's no link there.  He's a Libs of Tick Tock lover so he's probably talking about some of the stuff in Canada but who knows.  He has to hold his little nose before he can speak up.  Hold his little nose and clutch his pearls -- with his sphincter? 

I used to call Cokie Roberts out for her b.s. about "as a mother."  Now we're getting Jonathan -- 61-years-old -- writing "As a parent of four . . ."  He's ridiculous.  

And one column -- one really bad column -- doesn't wipe away your bigotry.  That's all you are, Jonathan, a bigot.  Well you're a paid bigot.  There's that too.  FOX "NEWS" wouldn't keep you around if you were calling out their bigotry, would they?  

Your paid to look the other way and that's why when you're finally forced -- due to complaints online and, yes, on campus (yes, Jonathan, I know all about it) -- to talk about you frame it in such delicate and petite language.

As a parent . . . 

Just stop pretending.  We know you're a paid whore.  FOX "NEWS" owns you.  It's destroyed your reputation and it's destroying your academic career.  When you're standing looking around at the ruins of your life, hope you still think it was worth it because this isn't over, Jonathan.  It's just beginning.




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