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sambista



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PostPosted: 11/12/15 6:24 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

as good a place as any. and no, though it may seem i've been a bit obsessive lately about the race card, this just happens to be one of the places where i share amazing and unbelievable news bits. seems some folks down under like to play cards on occasion, too.

Quote:
Apple employees in Australia apologized Wednesday to a group of black students who were told to leave one of the company’s stores in Melbourne because of fears they would “steal something.”

“These guys are just a bit worried about your presence in our store,” an employee at the Apple store in a Melbourne suburb told the group, according to a video of the incident, which happened Tuesday.

The video, which one of the students later posted on Facebook, showed the employee speaking outside the store to the students while a member of the store’s security team looked on.

“They are just worried you might steal something,” the employee said.

“Why would we steal something?” asked one of the teenagers.

“End of discussion,” the Apple employee said. “I need to ask you to leave our store.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/business/international/an-australian-apple-store-apologizes-to-black-students-it-ejected.html

the ones you can see in the video sure look like an unsavory lot to me . . .

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MdCuu_fT91Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>



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beknighted



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PostPosted: 11/12/15 11:39 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

I read the Times every day, and have for decades. It's pretty much the only U.S. paper that has decent foreign coverage nowadays - everybody else has cut way back. (The Times has cut, too, but not nearly as much.) In the U.S., the Times essentially dominates there - it's won 4 of the last 6 Pulitzer Prizes in international reporting, plus 4 more for stories and photography that didn't fall under that category but involved international topics.

I think you're selling the domestic coverage short, though. The Times Pulitzers during that time also included awards for domestic reporting on food safety, Memorial Hospital in New Orleans during Katrina and the impact of lobbying. The Times just ran a great series on arbitration clauses and the impact they have on access to justice. It's also doing a great job with data-driven stories, and probably has some of the best interactive material of any newspaper, almost all of which is focused on domestic issues.

All that said, the Times is a global brand, and its competitors - the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, etc. - all have a lot of non-U.S. coverage. It makes sense to focus on an area that is both strong and helpful in that competition.

One other note: If the Times really is making money on digital, that's actually very good news for it, since a lot of news outlets still are taking losses in that part of their businesses, and that's where they need to make money to survive in the long run.


sambista



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PostPosted: 11/13/15 5:28 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

beknighted wrote:
I read the Times every day, and have for decades. It's pretty much the only U.S. paper that has decent foreign coverage nowadays - everybody else has cut way back. (The Times has cut, too, but not nearly as much.) In the U.S., the Times essentially dominates there - it's won 4 of the last 6 Pulitzer Prizes in international reporting, plus 4 more for stories and photography that didn't fall under that category but involved international topics.

I think you're selling the domestic coverage short, though. The Times Pulitzers during that time also included awards for domestic reporting on food safety, Memorial Hospital in New Orleans during Katrina and the impact of lobbying. The Times just ran a great series on arbitration clauses and the impact they have on access to justice. It's also doing a great job with data-driven stories, and probably has some of the best interactive material of any newspaper, almost all of which is focused on domestic issues.

All that said, the Times is a global brand, and its competitors - the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, etc. - all have a lot of non-U.S. coverage. It makes sense to focus on an area that is both strong and helpful in that competition.

One other note: If the Times really is making money on digital, that's actually very good news for it, since a lot of news outlets still are taking losses in that part of their businesses, and that's where they need to make money to survive in the long run.


it took a long time for the times to "get it," that its web product wasn't a stepchild but would become its only child. but you're right: the interactive material is brilliant, i think, most of the time. not just visual packages with lots of data, but compelling, easy to digest and even clever. i was surprised to see what still stands out as a fun, even frivolous . . . what would you call it? it wasn't a gif, i don't think, and it wasn't a video. it was an animation for a story in the food section about reconstructing a salad. the animation was literal, showing miniature construction workers with miniature construction equipment - cranes, pulleys and whatnot - moving foodstuffs around a plate to build a modern-day salad. it was inspired and totally uncharacteristic for the times.



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jammerbirdi



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PostPosted: 11/13/15 11:28 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

beknighted wrote:

I think you're selling the domestic coverage short, though. The Times just ran a great series on arbitration clauses and the impact they have on access to justice.


No, I don't think I am. What I said was this.

jammerbirdi wrote:
They remain as well the best source for incredible investigative stories on socio-economic horrors in the US. But they clearly feature horrors elsewhere to an extent that dwarfs their coverage of social ills here.

Don't lose sight of my second sentence there and I'm grateful as we all should be that this newspaper uncovers and brings to light probably the majority of the stories I have posted in this thread.


I want more from their domestic coverage, however, because I know that much much more is needed. And I'm not saying I want to lose the reporting from around the world at all. I read it and need it and enjoy it. But I believe what I believe from watching the volume and depth of foreign coverage in relation to what I know is not being covered here.

I'll give you some examples of what I'm talking about when I ask for MORE and use two Times articles I posted here in this thread to show you exactly what I mean.

You mentioned the recent arbitration story. I posted it here in this thread on Nov. 1st.

2015.

In the opening paragraphs the article says this.

Quote:
If cardholders have a problem with their account, American Express explains, the company “may elect to resolve any claim by individual arbitration.”

Those nine words are at the center of a far-reaching power play orchestrated by American corporations, an investigation by The New York Times has found.


A few paragraphs later, they write...

Quote:
More than a decade in the making, the move to block class actions was engineered by a Wall Street-led coalition of credit card companies and retailers, according to interviews with coalition members and court records. Strategizing from law offices on Park Avenue and in Washington, members of the group came up with a plan to insulate themselves from the costly lawsuits. Their work culminated in two Supreme Court rulings, in 2011 and 2013, that enshrined the use of class-action bans in contracts.


Oh NOW the New York Times tells us. Gee thanks. Who knew?

Great story. Yes. Great presentation of a the concept. No question. But you've got to be kidding me, NYTimes, with the timing. I'm becoming more critical actually as I type this but I'm thinking they had the nerve to write...

"....an investigation by The New York Times has found."

Shocked

I guess this little sidebar sambista has taken us on does belong in the To Hell in a Handbasket thread.

I think you might be getting my point. I hope so. There's an old saying. I think anyway. If it's not in the New York Times it isn't happening. That's the responsibility. They are the newspaper of record. They are doing an amazing job and have certainly upped their digital game. I'm rolling my eyes. Congratulations to all us who appreciate their successful transition into new media and ways of delivering stories. (I'd hoped that last sentence would have sounded as sarcastic as I felt typing it.)

As I said, this is a country of unspoken things. If EVER the news is finally delivered to the people, it is often years after the fact when, as in this case anyway, the problematic situation has twice, years apart, been upheld by the freaking Supreme Court of the freaking United States. Then, and only then, oh wait, no... now ADD a few years to the recipe and finally the New York Times uncovers the story.

So am I selling the Times' domestic coverage short? If you say so.

But let me give you another example. From this thread and from another amazing eye-opening piece in the New York Times I posted here.

I'm not going to go back and try to do screen shots or reread the article to make this example as factually accurate as I would like. But you can trust me on the gist of my point.

The Times ran an amazing series back late last year or early this year on the extent to which foreign owned (and nearly impossible to trace the ownership of) LLCs were buying up high end residential real estate in New York.

It was a stunning read.

But again. Sitting back and taking it all in, it becomes apparent that this article is coming years too late. The EXTENT to which this practice had already been utilized clearly indicated that the laws and the knowledge of the nuances of the real estate laws and LLC protections was known by entities far and wide because they had, by the time the series was published in the Times, bought up, in most of the buildings reported on, the MAJORITY of the properties. That's right. The Times found that the majority of these apartments that sell in the ranges of 10-20 million dollars were owned by LLCs.

Then they showed an interactive map. So slick! A map of the good old US of A. Places like Los Angeles. That map told a gut wrenching tale. All around this country the same practice was happening. Here in Los Angeles it looked, if I remember correctly, to be even worse than in New York City.

CLEARLY, the very affluent and unknowable, alleged by the Times to be shady, gangsters, from around the world. Did I leave that part out? Sorry, it's important. These LLCs were alleged by the New York Times to be shielding foreign owners. So there's that. So clearly, affluent foreign entities had BEEN exploiting the LLC designation for years to buy up enough high-end real estate to shade large swaths in an interactive map of the most desirable zip codes in America right under all of our noses and without anyone tipping us off that it was a) possible and b) BEGINNING to occur.

So that we might have done something to stop it before it became what it is.

This is a COUNTRY of such shit. Unspoken things. Things that if they're not in the New York Times, they're not happening.

So yes, I would like to see MUCH MUCH more from the Times.

I've talked about something happening here in LA that there's no question is a) an unspoken thing and b) stunningly largescale and illegal, etc. Impacts hundreds of thousands of people and entire industries in California. But if it's not in the NYTimes, it isn't happening. Then someday, they suddenly, like the nail salon abuse, do a story. And then it's real.

What do you guys think the political impact would be if the situations I described in other threads about the restaurant and construction business here in LA were plastered across the front page of the New York Times in a multi-day investigative feature? Can you imagine what that information would do to the political climate in this country if it were placed right now in front of the American people, with the current focus on immigration, talk of illegals, Trump, etc.

Anyway. I'm ranting. We need more and better and more timely domestic coverage of the many horrors that are befalling our own people and nation. Just peel a little away from the stuff that isn't directly impacting Americans yet and shine a light on the kinds of happenings that are stealing our country right out from underneath us.


sambista



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PostPosted: 11/13/15 5:07 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

yeah, uh, first, EYE didn't take us on that little side trip. i posted a story about the mass migration to europe. YOU are the one who took the nyt to task.

but i think maybe you're expecting too much of the nyt. again, not defending it. but here's the way i see it: assuming the times doesn't have unlimited resources, and it doesn't, if it did all of what you expect, its foreign coverage surely would suffer. then what would you say? "too bad the times doesn't cover the world like it used to." i'd rather a company excel at what it does best than deliver a mediocre product trying to be all things to all people. the nyt isn't THE paper of record, it's A paper of record. so is the l.a. times, washpo, wsj, chicago tribune, christian science monitor and the snatchback, arkansas, gazette. i think your head would spin off its stem if you knew how many stories compete to be covered; and then, after they're covered and ready to run, compete to get more than three or four paragraphs, if that - even in a seemingly limitless digital space.

thank goodness we have news portals now that aggregate the news, and you can have it delivered up any way you like, what sources you like and what subjects you like. there's great news coverage out there from all quarters.



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jammerbirdi



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PostPosted: 11/13/15 5:49 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

sambista wrote:
yeah, uh, first, EYE didn't take us on that little side trip. i posted a story about the mass migration to europe. YOU are the one who took the nyt to task.


EYE stand corrected. On that point. Wink


jammerbirdi



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PostPosted: 11/18/15 4:21 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

You know my biggest disappointment about this thread is the stories that I didn't post here. Certainly I intended to... but time and other things... they just got away from me.

I know of four for sure. Now they're too old but there's a reason I'm bringing this all up and I'll get to it in a second.

One was the story of the militarization of the police forces that was being achieved, in some cases, on the backs of revenue created by the practice of civil asset forfeiture, a concept that was created as criminal asset forfeiture, something to relieve drug dealers and other mobsters of their ill-gotten gains... but because of... I'm trying to pull this out of my butt... remove that mental image if you can... somehow under homeland security bullshit municipalities etc. were able to go after regular people's money and property in civil actions. I don't remember. But it was fucked up. We certainly discussed the militarization of local police forces over the years and especially during the summer of Ferguson, but I'm not quite sure we covered the civil asset forfeiture stuff.

Also the practice of sending swat teams etc. to break up parties for code violations... too many people in a room, etc. And they would go in like it was a homeland security situation... ladies in cocktail dresses spread eagled on the floor. etc. Again we may have discussed that one as well but not here and I'd meant to bring all of that into this thread.

Another one was an incredible article debunking scientifically everything we came to know about antioxidants and free-radicals etc. All of that. The article took it all down and Jonus Salk along with it all. It was scientific, definitive, and stunning. Cited paper after paper and study after study. It's all a crock of shit. Vitamin C... everything. In a way I don't regret so much not posting that because after reading that article... I never heard another thing about it. lol. Like... Nobody paid it a drop of attention. I'll try to find it. It was, for me, sort of earth shattering. I mean... I'm sure most of us were raised on the idea of antioxidants battling free-radicals, etc. Anyway.

The third story I failed to post in this thread was about the practice of payday lenders and specifically those that target young military personnel around bases throughout the US. Ugly shit. Really putting the screws to these kids, many of whom had returned from overseas duty. Don't hear much about it anymore but it would be naive to think that it's not still going on.

Okay, the last story... that I REALLY wished I'd posted here was a doozy. It was the story from about two years ago of how a bunch of colleges, many real colleges and, of course, many vocational type schools, were seducing students who had zero chance of succeeding in college to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans... only to have the students very often not even show up for their first week of class... or do and drop out very quickly when they realized how ill prepared they are for college of any kind... and yet the school has their money and they owe the loans. And those loans are huge, impossible to pay back, credit destroying. A lifelong burden on these are the most vulnerable people in our country. Inner city, minority, etc. The cruelest shit ever. But they are told and sold on the importance of education and seduced by the idea that they are 'accepted' at a college and so, of course, they get sucked in.

Well, despite actually in some cities having a reputation as a pretty good fine arts school, The Art Institutes, which for decades advertised during afternoon television on the cheaper local TV channels, was no surprise one of the most egregious offenders.

And that's why I'm posting this. Because, what we have here is a rare good outcome, in one of these hell in a hand basket stories. Even though I didn't post it here.

But Art Institutes' owner lost a big decision and has to pay out a big big settlement.

Education Management Corporation, an operator of for-profit colleges that include about 50 Art Institute schools across the U.S. and Canada, will forgive 80,000 student loans to bring a consumer fraud investigation to a close, and pay $95.5 million to settle a lawsuit over its recruitment practices, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and various press reports.

EDMC had been accused of using illegal tactics to recruit thousands of students who had little chance of succeeding in college. Consequently, they had little chance of repaying their student loans. According to a statement issued Monday from the U.S. Department of Justice, "EDMC improperly enriched itself for more than 10 years with federal and state grant and loan dollars."


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PostPosted: 11/20/15 7:38 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Half of New Yorkers Say They Are Barely or Not Getting By, Poll Shows

Half of New York City residents say they are struggling economically, making ends meet just barely, if at all, and most feel sharp uncertainty about the future of the city’s next generation, a new poll shows.

The poll, conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, shows great disparities in quality of life among the city’s five boroughs. The stresses weighing on New Yorkers vary widely, from the Bronx, where residents feel acute concern about access to jobs and educational opportunity, to Staten Island, where one in five report recently experiencing vandalism or theft.

But an atmosphere of economic anxiety pervades all areas of the city: 51 percent of New Yorkers said they were either just getting by or finding it difficult to do so.

Even in Manhattan, three in 10 said they were just getting by. (Fifty-eight percent said they were doing all right or thriving financially — the highest response of the five boroughs.)

In some respects, the poll echoed the “tale of two cities” theme of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2013 campaign: Residents of the Bronx and Brooklyn shared the most pronounced sense of economic insecurity, and the lowest confidence in local government and the police — a distinctly different experience from the rest of the city.

In those boroughs, nearly three in five residents said they were straining to make ends meet. In the Bronx, 36 percent said there had been times in the past year when they did not have the money to buy enough food for their family; only one in five said they and their neighbors had good or excellent access to suitable jobs.

By almost every measure, residents of the Bronx had the deepest concerns about their neighborhoods: Half of respondents there said it was likely that a young person in the neighborhood would abuse drugs or alcohol. Thirty-seven percent said it was likely that a young person in the neighborhood would join a gang, whereas 19 percent of Manhattan residents and 16 percent of Staten Island residents said the same.

Just six in 10 Bronx residents said it was likely that a young person in their neighborhood would graduate from high school, compared with about three-quarters of New Yorkers over all. Meanwhile, 44 percent of respondents in the Bronx said it was probable that the children around them would grow up having a relative who is incarcerated. (The citywide number is lower, about one-third, but it rises to 52 percent among African-Americans.)

Government is not seen as addressing the problems that trouble these areas: In the Bronx, only one in five respondents gave local government high marks for meeting their needs. In Brooklyn, that figure was a bit higher, at 26 percent, compared with roughly a third in Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute, said residents of Manhattan and Queens, as well as whites in general, were clearly more likely to say that they were doing all right or living comfortably. “But a majority of residents of the Bronx or Brooklyn and nearly three-quarters of those earning under $50,000 are either just getting by or finding it difficult to manage financially,” Mr. Levy said.


Ex-Ref



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PostPosted: 11/20/15 10:49 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

jammerbirdi wrote:
Half of New Yorkers Say They Are Barely or Not Getting By, Poll Shows
[i]




Forty seven percent of my last raise (1.5%) will go to cover the increase in the cost of my benefits. And this doesn't even include my one medication that went up 50% when I filled it a couple months ago.

While I'm happy that I got a raise and am able to get benefits, it sucks. I'm working a full time job and going backwards. That's just wrong!

And when I think about my co-workers that make less than I do, an even larger percentage of their raise is going to their benefits.


tfan



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PostPosted: 11/21/15 4:53 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Technology should be making our lives better and better all the time - with regard to standard of living. The fact that we have articles like this in 2015 means we have to look for a cause of why things are not only not getting better, but not even staying the same. Could it be immigration? No, can't be - no one in the mainstream has a bad thing to say about it and every politician running for office wants to increase it. More people not only doesn't make us worse - we get better from more people the experts tell us. Not part of the problem, but part of the solution.

Could it be job export? A few cracks here regarding the mainstream but it is almost unanimous by the experts that job export is good and should be continued. In fact, the mainstream - for the most part - wants to continue to make it easier and less problematic to export jobs via new deals like TPP and TTIP.

So there you have it. We have no idea why we are seeing these articles because we are doing everything right. While more workers in, more jobs out are clearly change - it is change that will only make things better. So if we just stay the course - we will see these articles disappear. Keep the faith.


HistoryWomensBasketball



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PostPosted: 11/21/15 7:28 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Ex-Ref wrote:
jammerbirdi wrote:
Half of New Yorkers Say They Are Barely or Not Getting By, Poll Shows
[i]




Forty seven percent of my last raise (1.5%) will go to cover the increase in the cost of my benefits. And this doesn't even include my one medication that went up 50% when I filled it a couple months ago.

While I'm happy that I got a raise and am able to get benefits, it sucks. I'm working a full time job and going backwards. That's just wrong!

And when I think about my co-workers that make less than I do, an even larger percentage of their raise is going to their benefits.


I totally hear you. I have gotten a 6% raise over the last 7 years. Yes my net income has gone down $268 every four weeks. This is due large in part to increased health insurance cost as well as more entitlements in the great state of Connecticut.



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sambista



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PostPosted: 11/24/15 6:46 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

i'm posting more than half of this nyt editorial because everyone who can should read it, paywall be damned. today's stories of people scraping by, america's infrastructure crumbling, creditors chasing after the little guy with a piggy bank as a financial portfolio, are underscored by our inaction as we sit and intellectually, dispassionately dismiss potential leaders like bernie sanders as unelectable - just one of our more visible (or should that be 'viable'?) examples of someone who would be brave enough to change so much that's wrong. the italics are mine.

Pfizer’s Big Breakthrough: Global Tax Avoidance
The $160 billion deal to combine Pfizer and Allergan, the maker of Botox, does not appear to be illegal. But it should be. This merger is a tax-dodging maneuver that enriches shareholders and executives while shortchanging the public and robbing the Treasury of money that would pay for a host of government programs — including education, scientific research and other services that also benefit corporations.

Pfizer, with a market value of nearly $200 billion, will be acquired by the smaller Allergan, which is run from New Jersey but technically headquartered in Ireland. This will allow Pfizer, which is based in New York, to pass itself off as Irish as well. Once the paper shuffling is complete, much if not most of Pfizer’s earnings — including those that are made in the United States — will be taxed at global tax rates that are generally lower than American tax rates.

In recent years, dozens of American companies have used similar tactics, known as inversions, to reincorporate in Ireland, Britain and other countries with lower corporate tax rates than those in the United States — at a cost to the Treasury conservatively estimated at $20 billion over 10 years. Pfizer’s merger is by far the largest such move.

But if it’s a loss for taxpayers, it’s a great deal for Pfizer. As with other companies that have “inverted,” the only thing it has to lose is its tax obligations. Inverted companies almost invariably keep their headquarters and top executives in the United States. They remain listed on United States-based stock exchanges, where they raise capital under the protection of American securities’ laws. The newly combined Pfizer Inc. and Allergan P.L.C., for instance, will be renamed Pfizer P.L.C. and trade under the ticker symbol PFE, Pfizer’s current symbol, on the New York Stock Exchange, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In addition, inverted companies continue to enjoy the protection of patent laws in the United States, as well as their connections, official and unofficial, with federal research agencies — all of which are crucial to drug-company profits. Contrary to popular belief, much high-risk, pathbreaking research and development can be traced not to the big drug companies but to taxpayer-funded research at the National Institutes of Health.

Traditionally, corporate taxation was a way to repay the public for benefits companies received from federal support. But in recent decades, corporate taxes as a share of federal revenue have shriveled. Inversions will only worsen that trend, effectively bolstering corporate profits at the expense of the public.

nytimes.com



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norwester



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PostPosted: 11/24/15 12:40 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

HistoryWomensBasketball wrote:
Ex-Ref wrote:
jammerbirdi wrote:
Half of New Yorkers Say They Are Barely or Not Getting By, Poll Shows
[i]




Forty seven percent of my last raise (1.5%) will go to cover the increase in the cost of my benefits. And this doesn't even include my one medication that went up 50% when I filled it a couple months ago.

While I'm happy that I got a raise and am able to get benefits, it sucks. I'm working a full time job and going backwards. That's just wrong!

And when I think about my co-workers that make less than I do, an even larger percentage of their raise is going to their benefits.


I totally hear you. I have gotten a 6% raise over the last 7 years. Yes my net income has gone down $268 every four weeks. This is due large in part to increased health insurance cost as well as more entitlements in the great state of Connecticut.

Well, try working for the Feds in a place like Seattle where a biotech and tech boom have cost of living rates sky-rocketing, combined with the typical health insurance rate increases every year, and having your income frozen for years.

At least we finally got that 1%! Shocked

Though I am happy to be employed, so I can't really look a gift horse in the mouth from that perspective. Still, that's how they get you! Evil or Very Mad



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norwester



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PostPosted: 11/24/15 7:09 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Nothing new, I guess. More grist. More unpalatable grist. Evil or Very Mad

New Study Finds Banks Are Cheating Black People Out of Mortgages Based on Race, Not Income



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PostPosted: 11/24/15 11:41 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

norwester wrote:
Nothing new, I guess. More grist. More unpalatable grist. Evil or Very Mad

New Study Finds Banks Are Cheating Black People Out of Mortgages Based on Race, Not Income


Reminds me of the "Red Line" concept implemented in the post ww2 era, that was discussed here in the white privilege thread.



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norwester



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PostPosted: 11/25/15 12:38 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Yeah. I guess the text being it never ended.



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PostPosted: 12/07/15 11:09 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

The AR-15 style assault weapon is the best selling rifle in the United States.


pilight



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PostPosted: 12/07/15 11:27 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

jammerbirdi wrote:
The AR-15 style assault weapon is the best selling rifle in the United States.


Depends on your definition of "assault weapon"



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PostPosted: 12/07/15 11:49 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

pilight wrote:
jammerbirdi wrote:
The AR-15 style assault weapon is the best selling rifle in the United States.


Depends on your definition of "assault weapon"


It's only included in the sentence because 'style' is there for rhetorical accuracy. It is amazing the things that folks focus on but preemptively trying to avoid nitpicking is why I put that level of detail into the simple statement.

Here's a more conversational way of saying it.

The AR-15 is the best selling rifle in America.

That reality stands just fine on its own as a worthwhile entry in this thread.


norwester



Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 6367
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PostPosted: 12/07/15 2:16 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

But what does that even mean? Is that a recent development, or has it been for decades? And are we talking the official "AR-15" or all semi-automatic varietals that are colloquially referred to as "AR-15"s? Is it a big number, or just the fact that it out-sells other action rifles that's disturbing?

I mean, this list is subjective, so you can put whatever you want on it. I'm not quibbling about that.

I guess I just wanted a bit more information about why this disturbs you in particular. A rifle that is familiar (sold to civilians since the 60s, though modifications were made in the late 80s to ensure it was difficult to convert to automatic), light, and modular (meaning it can be relatively easily customized with the sights, barrels, stocks, etc. that the user wants) seems like a no-brainer for a high-seller in the gun-owning community. I bet it's been that way for some time.



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jammerbirdi



Joined: 23 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: 12/07/15 3:37 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

NQLOL.

I say it with love. But I'm chuckling to myself.


norwester



Joined: 14 Jun 2006
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PostPosted: 12/08/15 2:36 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

About whether it's on the list. I always reserve the right to ask other posters to explain their points of view. Razz Laughing



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sambista



Joined: 25 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: 12/17/15 2:15 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

every now and then, justice is served. let's see if shkreli's $750 pill can cure this!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xaEg8TDnmdc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>



p.s.

BROOKLYN (The Borowitz Report)—A criminal lawyer representing Turing Pharmaceuticals chief Martin Shkreli has informed his client that he is raising his hourly legal fees by five thousand per cent, the lawyer has confirmed.

Minutes after Shkreli’s arrest on charges of securities fraud, the attorney, Harland Dorrinson, announced that he was hiking his fees from twelve hundred dollars an hour to sixty thousand dollars.

Shkreli, who reportedly received the news about the price hike while he was being fingerprinted, cried foul and accused his attorney of “outrageous and inhumane price gouging.”

“This is the behavior of a sociopath,” Shkreli was heard screaming.

For his part, Shkreli’s lawyer was unmoved by his client’s complaint. “Compared to what he pays for an hour of Wu-Tang Clan, sixty thou is a bargain,” he said.

newyorker.com/humor



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sambista



Joined: 25 Sep 2004
Posts: 16951
Location: way station of life


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PostPosted: 02/21/16 6:57 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

it never stops - moral corruption.

Market for Fixer-Uppers Traps Low-Income Buyers
AKRON, Ohio — Hundreds of broken-down houses still dot the streets of this onetime tire capital of the world, a scar from the financial crisis and housing bust.

The wood has rotted in some; others have black mold, broken windows or failing foundations. Many lack working electrical systems or are missing water pipes and furnaces. The unpaid property taxes mount.

Dozens of these houses were scooped up after the financial crisis by investors, who then make deals with low-income home buyers unable to get traditional mortgages. The arrangement is something like buying a home on an installment plan, with a high-interest, long-term loan called a contract for deed, or land contract.

But for buyers lured by the dream of homeownership, these seller-financed transactions can become a money trap that ends with a quick eviction by the seller, who can flip the home again. Before the housing crisis, low-income buyers got too much of a house that they couldn’t afford. Now, they are getting too little of a house that they can’t afford to repair.



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jammerbirdi



Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 21045



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PostPosted: 02/21/16 8:57 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Thank you. I was going to post this yesterday but I got very distracted. Incredible, bista. Just need a head shaking animated gif on permanent display in this thread.

Pretty disgusting and becoming almost typical example of the kind of predatory snakes people can be. We need to create a country where the most vile criminal offense on the books is taking advantage of other, too often far less fortunate, Americans. Long and harsh jail time. Scorn and devastating fines. Instead of lives as patrons of the arts and all that.


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