tenderfoot
tenderfoot's JournalWho is most responsible for dividing the US citizenry?
Retailers say thefts are at crisis level. The numbers say otherwise
The “retail theft crime wave” is just propaganda pushed out by the trolls and the California Retailers Association? No way.
“Shoplifting” in Los Angeles down 30%!
Captured on smartphones and closed-circuit cameras, thefts involving groups of people smashing windows or individuals wheeling loaded shopping carts past security guards and out the door have been looping on social media and TV news, raising the specter that crime rings reselling boosted merchandise present a major threat to retailers.
With industry groups sounding the alarm, politicians have declared the issue a priority. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would increase the budget of the California Highway Patrol next year to beef up its Organized Retail Theft task force. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta met with retailers, online marketplace companies and law enforcement Tuesday to develop strategies to fight organized retail crime. Police and prosecutors say criminal justice reforms need to be rolled back to deter smash-and-grabs.
Although some retail and law enforcement lobbyists cite eye-popping figures, there is reason to doubt the problem is anywhere near as large or widespread as they say. The best estimates available put losses at around 7 cents per $100 of sales on average.
:snip:
The country’s largest retail industry group, the National Retail Federation, estimated in its latest report that losses from organized retail theft average $700,000 per $1 billion in sales — or 0.07% of total sales — an amount roughly 330 times lower than the CRA’s estimate.
More: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-15/organized-retail-theft-crime-rate
Elon Musk calls Sen. Elizabeth Warren "Senator Karen" for calling out his not paying taxes
https://twitter.com/FredTJoseph/status/1470915387915182082
Of Course Donald Trump's Ridiculous Bible Photo OP was Ivanka's Idea
Earlier this year, we noted that while the old saying goes, “behind every great man is a great woman,” the more appropriate adage for the Trump era would be, “behind every presidential fuckup is a first daughter and son-in-law who have no idea what they’re doing but nevertheless think they should be advising the leader of the free world.” Obviously, Donald Trump was (and remains!) extremely capable of destroying the country on his own, but as senior advisers, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner frequently helped things along. From not-a-doctor Kushner playing a key role in the government’s pandemic response—a role that reportedly included telling people early in the pandemic that the virus wasn’t a “health reality”—to Princess Purses reportedly demanding her dad deliver an address to the nation on a moment’s notice, which resulted in him telling millions of people, “The risk [of this virus] is very, very low,” wherever there was a screwup, those two could be found. And now, thanks to a new book from someone very familiar with the matter, we know that Ivanka was responsible for one of the most ridiculous, sacrilegious moments of Trump’s time in office.
According to the Religious News Service, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s book offers a “detailed account” of the 45th president’s “infamous Bible photo op at St. John’s Church in June 2020,” which, it turns out, was reportedly Ivanka’s idea. For those who need a refresher, in June 2020, at the height of racial-justice protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Trump, concerned about media coverage of his retreat to a White House bunker, had peaceful protesters tear-gassed so he could make his way to the nearby St. John’s church. There, he held up a Bible and posed for photos while telling reporters, “we have a great country” and vowing he would “make it even greater, and it won’t take long.”
:snip:
One person who presumably was indeed proud of herself? The first daughter. Per RNS:
“As I watched President Trump listening to his daughter, I could tell he loved the idea,” Meadows writes. Meadows also writes that Trump’s aides scrambled to find a Bible for the president to use on June 1, pulling ones from their offices and stacking them on a desk outside the Oval Office. Trump, he says, ultimately chose one of the Bibles less because of its appearance and more for “the way it felt in his hands.”
The former congressman writes that Ivanka kept the Bible in her purse until the group arrived at St. John’s. They had expected to enter the church, inspect the damage and possibly say a prayer, but opted for an outside photo shoot upon realizing the sanctuary was boarded up.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/12/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-bible-photo-op
DU: GW Bush Era vs Now. Farther to the Left or Right?
We are all aware that the US is disturbingly the farthest to the right than it's ever been.
How about DU, from 2003 to Now?
Wannabe Bomber Gets Zero Jail Time for Planting Homemade Explosives During BLM Protests
Must have gotten one of those soft-on-crime progressive DA's... 
A Pennsylvania man who admitted to leaving a bag of homemade bombs in downtown Pittsburgh during the 2020 protests against the death of George Floyd won’t spend a day behind bars. Matthew Michanowicz, 53, was sentenced to time served and three years of probation by a judge on Monday. The first six months of his sentence will be served under home detention.
Michanowicz, who was called an “agitator” intent on violence by a former federal prosecutor, pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device following a grand jury indictment in June 2020. A prosecutor at his trial argued Michanowicz should receive between 30 and 37 months in prison on the basis that his devices could have killed or seriously injured people.
Michanowicz was captured on surveillance footage biking to a protest site and planting a backpack there on May 31, 2020. A day later, officers summoned to respond to the suspicious bag found three explosive devices. Authorities later said the devices were spent pepper spray grenades with wicks held in place by foam spray insulation, filled with gasoline and capable of causing death. Investigators who later searched Michanowicz’s home found 10 more backpacks similar to the one he had planted.
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2021/12/06/Pittsburgh-man-gets-probation-for-planting-bombs-Downtown/stories/202112060118
I look forward to his Waukesha moment...
Joe Manchin confirms that he's not a Democrat
https://twitter.com/KThomasDC/status/1468347856952123408Attn: DU Truckers... have you seen this emergency brake system from Volvo?
https://twitter.com/StrictlyChristo/status/1468340034570907655We do remember when Bob Dole returned a donation from Log Cabin Republicans, because gay?
https://twitter.com/MSignorile/status/1467579340598788098https://twitter.com/MSignorile/status/1467591924353847298
https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1467583026855124992
Pro-Trump counties now have far higher COVID death rates. Misinformation is to blame
:snip:
The analysis only looked at the geographic location of COVID-19 deaths. The exact political views of each person taken by the disease remains unknowable. But the strength of the association, combined with polling information about vaccination, strongly suggests that Republicans are being disproportionately affected.
Recent polling data that show Republicans are now the largest group of unvaccinated individuals in the United States, more than any other single demographic group. Polling also shows that mistrust in official sources of information and exposure to misinformation, about both COVID-19 and the vaccines, run high among Republicans.
"An unvaccinated person is three times as likely to lean Republican as they are to lean Democrat," says Liz Hamel, vice president of public opinion and survey research at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy think tank that tracks attitudes toward vaccination. Political affiliation is now the strongest indicator of whether someone is vaccinated, she says: "If I wanted to guess if somebody was vaccinated or not and I could only know one thing about them, I would probably ask what their party affiliation is."
:snip:
Deadly consequences
The consequences for individuals are real. Mark Valentine still remembers when his brother called him to tell him he had contracted coronavirus. Valentine is a trial consultant in North Carolina. His brother Phil, 61, was a well-known conservative talk show host in Nashville, Tenn., who often expressed skepticism about vaccination.
Neither brother was vaccinated, and neither one was particularly worried about Phil's positive result. His brother said he was trying several alternative therapies commonly promoted in conservative circles. "He said, 'I've got the ivermectin, I started it this morning, and I don't think it's going to be a big deal,' " Mark Valentine recalls. "And frankly I didn't think about it anymore."
But a week later, Mark said he got a call from his brother's wife saying that the two were going to the hospital. "Before I knew it, he was in there and I couldn't get to him, couldn't talk to him," Valentine recalls. "His situation took a nosedive like you can't believe."
Phil Valentine died in August about five weeks after he announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vaccine-misinformation-trump-counties-covid-death-rate
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: East Coast
Home country: USA
Current location: West Coast
Member since: Tue Sep 3, 2013, 01:59 PM
Number of posts: 8,425
