Happy Jan 6th! Remember, 1st coup always fails!🙂
Hitler. Saddam. Castro. All the big names took at least 2 shots, regardless of political philosophy!
And in the USA the rules of civility discourse meant that after Jan 6th, Biden had more to say to Black folk than he did to the far-right politicians that supported it.🤡 He made a big show of saying that he would fire any member of his admin that was "rude" to a member of the far-right.
He asked us to move on. Our answer was no.
It's still no.
It's amazing how many people move smoothly from:
"Oh calm down Black people! It won't be that bad! They wouldn't do that!"
straight to
"ZOMG! The sky is falling! Democracy is at stake! *Incoherent wailing*"
without ever passing through common sense actions, like stop giving these clowns a platform, and let Black people vote maybe.
There is zero self-awareness of being wrong for years about what these people are up to. Zero self reflection on how almost 40 million Black folk saw it coming.
I make the joke about Blackstradamus 🔮🧙🏿♂️ because of course Black people aren't clairvoyant. We don't actually see the future. We just don't bury our heads in the sand when racist people tell us exactly what they intend to do.
The US really did big investigations to find out who was behind Stop the Steal🤦🏿♂️ But one of the main dudes registered a "Stop The Steal" website! In 2016! And then said exactly what he would do! And looks like a 70s Bond villain! And literally has a Nixon tattoo on his back!
The greatest threat to Democracy is not cartoonishly evil racists who fumble and bumble their way through insurrections. Whose idea of a coup involves pooping in their own hand and then smearing it on the wall of Nancy Pelosi's office.
The biggest threat is people who see all this, and then decide the right action to take, is to increase police budgets targeting Black folk, in the name of fighting a completely made up and sensationalized crime wave.🙂🙃
They did Jan 6, and my life gets harder?🤷🏿♂️
I have friends who are very good at math, with job titles like "Professor of Economics" and "Data Scientist," that genuinely believed that poor Black people were shoplifting their way into driving drug stores in San Francisco bankrupt.🤦🏿♂️
I had to point out how drug stores actually make money (the pharmacy/prescriptions), and how they really get customers (foot traffic), and how their own quarterly reports even before the pandemic, showed huge over saturation of drug stores in San Francisco.
I had to point out to my mathematically proficient friends, that if you managed to shoplift every single item in a Walmart superstore, including grocery items, tires, lawnmowers, TVs, all items on shelves and in the back of the store, then you've only stolen about $4 million worth of inventory.🤡
The "Shoplifters are hurting us!" was always a lie. It wasn't even a credible one. And y'all believed it.
It was always "Too many pharmacies" combined with "Pandemic WFH has reduced SF foot traffic."
You're allowed to lie in newspapers. Those lies only hurt Black folk. You're not allowed to lie on quarterly reports or earnings calls. Those lies might hurt "The Economy(tm)" AKA rich people's money. Drug store quarterly reports talk about store closures due to oversaturation and consolidation, not homeless dude somehow shoplifting half a billion dollars.
But we have money and energy to fight the dark menace of this "crime wave," but not to do anything meaningful about the ongoing coup.🙂🙃
You'll get more sound financial analysis of why drug stores in SF are really closing from RDCWorld's 68 second hood comedy skit, than from months of SF newspaper crime beat coverage. (Warning: strong language. Headphones in...) 🤷🏿♂️
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4FL0MfyjjNA
A criminal justice system this optimized for over-policing innocent Black folk, and this addicted to under-policing corrupt, powerful, white folk, cannot be effective in preventing an ongoing coup, unless that coup is attempted by Black folk🤡.
@dreadpir8robots @mekkaokereke
I really don't think that's a true or helpful framing. The economy affects the lives of vulnerable people much more than the rich. The rich always going to be completely comfortable either way.
@webbureaucrat @mekkaokereke I see what you're saying, but I don't think we're talking about the economy - the interconnected web of commerce, transactions, labour, capital - as a whole here.
Here, we're talking about "the economy" as it appears in headlines, in breaking news chirons, and on any of hundreds of talking head TV shows. In these contexts, "the economy" is treated with deference and concern which might be better saved for struggling humans. Anthropomorphism at its finest.
The rich will indeed be comfortable no matter what.
@dreadpir8robots @webbureaucrat
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/investing/stock-market-jobs-today/index.html
We have to drive up unemployment, and slow wage increases, to protect "The economy!"
If the value of my stocks double in 18 months, effectively doubling my wealth, no one cries. People just marvel at the strength and girth of my bootstraps! 🤑💰
But if my wages double in 18 months? Well then, that's a calamity! And interest rates must be raised until the pain sets in, people get laid off, wages go down, and order is restored.
@dreadpir8robots @webbureaucrat
We like to chat about how real wages haven't even kept up with inflation for most Americans. They haven't grown since 1978!
🤔 But if wages *don't* grow faster than inflation, how can that ever be corrected? If our solutions to inflation always result in us driving up unemployment and slowing wage growth, then our interventions make this problem worse, by design.
Supply chain shocks from China-Omicron will drive up inflation. So we'll... adjust interest rates?🤷🏿♂️
@mekkaokereke @dreadpir8robots
No one is preventing wages from growing faster than inflation--they aren't and weren't on track to do so before the Fed stepped in. That's a problem for workers and it's a good reason *for* the Fed to step in.
@mekkaokereke @dreadpir8robots
Raising interest rates theoretically only hurts labor by huring investment, so the internal logic of your argument doesn't hold. Ideally, the Fed can slow investment (and inflation) without hitting the unemployment rate, and based on stocks tanking and the unemployment rate holding steady, it seems like they're meeting that goal.
@mekkaokereke @dreadpir8robots
And yes, monetary policy is a pretty blunt instrument, and it's not a substitute for things Congress and other governmental bodies should be doing, but the broad goals of maximum employment and stable prices are still very important goals for working and poor people even if we haven't also solved every other societal problem.
(For legal reasons I may regret this thread and delete later.)
@dreadpir8robots @mekkaokereke
I think we are talking about those things, but without an appreciation for how they're connected. Like, what we were actually talking about is: "You're not allowed to lie on quarterly reports or earnings calls. Those lies might hurt 'The Economy(tm).'"
(1/2)
@dreadpir8robots @mekkaokereke
But it actually would! This isn't hypothetical. A number of years ago, some ratings agencies fudged a little on the risks of mortgage-backed securities, and a few years later, I was a high school student delaying a necessary surgery because my family's income was sub-20k.
We have to care about things like this even if it seems boring. (2/2)
@deilann
Yep. That weird product selection is carefully curated to attract different customer segments.
Every single non-pharmacy related product in a drug store added up together, is a rounding error. That entire part of the store only exists to remind us that there is a drug store at this location, and we can fill scrips here.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/261290/cvs-caremarks-revenue-distribution-by-product-group/
It is a "drug store where you can buy toothpaste and tampons," not a "toothpaste and tampon store where you can score some Oxy and Insulin."
@mekkaokereke or to wave that they have basic needs goods like toothpaste and tampons they don’t actually care if they sell or not, when you look at the price compared to anywhere else on market street in the faces of people who struggle to access these things.
sure seems pretty deliberate to make some shoplifting happen when you spell it out that way
The drug stores in suburbia have completely different stock.
Number of different estimates:
1) Several non Walmart/Target employee folks backing into the estimate by doing (inventory / number of stores). Quora similar to Reddit
2) Backing into the number by doing a similar calculation from quarterly reports: $59B over 10.5k stores. ~5.6MM
3) DMs from various big 5 types who did optimization work for them, telling me I'm ignoring how much inventory is in transit or ignoring seasonality like Black Friday. Range of their estimates: $1MM to $12MM
@mekkaokereke Internalised racism/white supremacy are dangerous drugs.
You would have to be very gullible to accept that proposition because... I mean... just? Think about it critically?
It's that uncritical acceptance of Fascist propaganda (and if it's not fascist propaganda, wtf do I call it?) that makes trying to achieve progressive aims so difficult.
The Anglo-American legal history of "Shoplifting" is also telling. Shoplifting first appears as a distinct crime in England's 1699 Shoplifting Act - part of the "Bloody Code".
It's a tough on crime law that made stealing small amounts from shops punishable by death. You could steal up to about $500 from most places before old England killed you, but lifting from a shop reduced to around $60.
Nothing changes.
The reason for the Act?
Moral panic over women (specifically) stealing where the new middle classes noticed it.
The stolen goods?
Mostly small items of fancy clothing.
@AugustB TIL.
*makes note to self to read more on this*
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread."
mekka okereke 
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