Octopus Overlords

malchior wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 1:10 pm I'll give the media some credit on this. If you read past the sensationalized headlines and completely unsubstatianated claims many do mention at the end of the story that Target hasn't provided any data to support their claims.

The golden age of disinformation. Oddly it all seemingly supports the notion that certain forces should have more power. What a coincidence. Right? Well democracy was nice while it lasted.

Jaymon wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 3:04 pm the right wingers (tm) have always been against popular music. wasn't there the same sort of backlash against the beatles? the rolling stones? If the kids like it, there must be something wrong with it, right?

LordMortis wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 7:08 pm

Jaymon wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 3:04 pm the right wingers (tm) have always been against popular music. wasn't there the same sort of backlash against the beatles? the rolling stones? If the kids like it, there must be something wrong with it, right?

In the 80s it was led by Tipper Gore, hardly a symbol of the right. But generally, yeah. The religious right and the Olds.

One does have to wonder, if you make your hay by sacrificing the youth, how long will it be before youth wants to sacrifice you and how much can you blame them?

Daehawk wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 7:47 pm Wait...Taylor Swift hates Trump?...I love her! OMG I'm a swiftie. Actually always liked her music..wife didn't...but my wife could take a jealous dislike of a pretty and talented girl even if I was never going to meet her.

But if crime is not rising at these stores, then why were these stores able to bear this suddenly unbearable level of crime for so long, and why do they all have to close so rapidly — within a month of the statement going out?

With this in mind I set out to see whether the stores that Target is closing are in fact experiencing increasing reported crime and how crime in those stores compare to other nearby Target stores that are not being closed.

Target announced that it will close stores in New York City, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Unfortunately, incident-level crime data in NYC and San Francisco does not contain addresses, but the data from Portland and Seattle do. The addresses are anonymized to the block level, but that is good enough to gauge crime levels in and around these stores.

...

Both Portland and Seattle have publicly available crime data which neatly separates crimes into NIBRS Society, Property, and Person categories. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of crimes at these stores (90+% at most) are property crimes such as shoplifting. Very few violent crimes have occurred on these blocks since 2016.

There are three Target stores in Portland being closed and two in Seattle. Both Portland and Seattle have three Target locations that are not being closed making it possible to compare crime trends at the closing and non-closing stores. How fun!

Holman wrote:

LordMortis wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 7:08 pm

Jaymon wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 3:04 pm the right wingers (tm) have always been against popular music. wasn't there the same sort of backlash against the beatles? the rolling stones? If the kids like it, there must be something wrong with it, right?

In the 80s it was led by Tipper Gore, hardly a symbol of the right. But generally, yeah. The religious right and the Olds.

One does have to wonder, if you make your hay by sacrificing the youth, how long will it be before youth wants to sacrifice you and how much can you blame them?

Yeah, the Gores were from Tennessee, and the 80s (along with the late 70s) were chock-full of moral panics around heavy metal and Satanism. At the time it was still possible for centrist Democrats to sign on to these.

But the general backlash against rock and roll in the 50s and 60s was always a right-wing thing. They hated that white kids were discovering black music, even if the artists playing the music were white.

malchior wrote: Thu Sep 28, 2023 11:55 am Re: the Target announcement, someone did a solid job of analysis of available crime data. The tldr; is, where there is available data (Seattle and Portland) he finds that stores that are remaining open have MORE CRIME than stores that are being closed. He makes some reasonable speculation that certain property crimes, for example less shoplifting, at a closing store are proxies for lower sales. In other words, there is some reason to believe that perhaps the stores are being closed for other performance based reasons and they are using crime as a smokescreen.

Analysis here

But if crime is not rising at these stores, then why were these stores able to bear this suddenly unbearable level of crime for so long, and why do they all have to close so rapidly — within a month of the statement going out?

With this in mind I set out to see whether the stores that Target is closing are in fact experiencing increasing reported crime and how crime in those stores compare to other nearby Target stores that are not being closed.

Target announced that it will close stores in New York City, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Unfortunately, incident-level crime data in NYC and San Francisco does not contain addresses, but the data from Portland and Seattle do. The addresses are anonymized to the block level, but that is good enough to gauge crime levels in and around these stores.

...

Both Portland and Seattle have publicly available crime data which neatly separates crimes into NIBRS Society, Property, and Person categories. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of crimes at these stores (90+% at most) are property crimes such as shoplifting. Very few violent crimes have occurred on these blocks since 2016.

There are three Target stores in Portland being closed and two in Seattle. Both Portland and Seattle have three Target locations that are not being closed making it possible to compare crime trends at the closing and non-closing stores. How fun!

"Out of the blue, they took our credit line from a million dollars down to $100,000," Lindell said. "Just cripples MyPillow. No reason, no explanation, just dropped it down last Tuesday."
...
In February 2022, Lindell was terminated as a client by the Minnesota Bank & Trust a month after the bank called him a "reputation risk."

Holman wrote:Musk is live-sharing from the Texas/Mexico border today. He's wearing a tight t-shirt, a cowboy hat, and mirrored sunglasses.

This asshole is 100% going to insert himself into the 2024 elections and manipulate the news.

Absolute trash person.

A man illegally brought a loaded handgun into the Wisconsin Capitol, demanding to see Gov. Tony Evers, and returned at night with an assault rifle after posting bail, a spokesperson for the state said Thursday.

The man, who was shirtless and had a holstered handgun, approached the governor’s office on the first floor of the Capitol around 2 p.m. Wednesday, state Department of Administration spokesperson Tatyana Warrick said. The man was demanding to see the governor, who was not in the building at the time, Warrick said.

A Capitol police officer sits at a desk outside of a suite of rooms that includes the governor’s office, conference room and offices for the attorney general.

Octavious wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2023 1:40 pm I'm kind of shocked that we haven't had a politician killed yet. It's just a matter of time sadly.

Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton is “fighting for her life” in an intensive care unit, according to her daughter.

Retton has been diagnosed with “a very rare form of pneumonia” and has been in the ICU at an undisclosed hospital for more than a week “not able to breathe on her own”, McKenna Kelley said in an Instagram story posted on Tuesday afternoon.

“Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details,” wrote Kelley, a former gymnast at Louisiana State University. “However, I will disclose that she not insured.”

Kraken wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2023 9:27 pm Living as I do in a state with near-universal coverage, I sometimes forget that large numbers of Americans are still uninsured. You'd think a faded celebrity should be able to afford an ACA plan...but of course IDK anything about her circumstances. Hope we don't soon wind up typing "RIP" in the celebrity death thread.

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2023 7:26 pm I'm putting this here because we should collectively be ashamed that a gold-medal Olympian needs a GoFund Me to pay for medical bills...

Max Peck wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 8:46 am According to the intertubes, she's worth a couple million dollars, so I'd guess that there's a distinction to be made between can't pay for insurance and chose not to pay for insurance, as well as can't pay the hospital bill and doesn't want to pay the hospital bill. As a staunch Reagan Republican, she will surely want to pay her own way.

GreenGoo wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 9:56 am

Max Peck wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 8:46 am According to the intertubes, she's worth a couple million dollars, so I'd guess that there's a distinction to be made between can't pay for insurance and chose not to pay for insurance, as well as can't pay the hospital bill and doesn't want to pay the hospital bill. As a staunch Reagan Republican, she will surely want to pay her own way.

Depends. If she owned 1 or 2 properties she could be worth a few million. Should she have to pick between her health and her home?

That said, I have no idea what the situation is, but being worth a couple of million dollars isn't what it used to be, especially when we hear about (some) hospital stays costing a sizeable percentage of a couple of million dollars.

malchior wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 9:57 am I don't know if this changes the math for you but she owns a *re-checks the notes* a 9000-sq. ft home. It probably was a choice.