Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

Given the generally "woke" nature of HR departments, especially government HR departments, I can't imagine he's still there. Or, perhaps the ability to get paid for doing so little trumps associating with assclowns.

[AlabamAlum]

His afternoon routine involved staying in a bathroom stall sometime after lunch until 45 minutes until he could go home - when he could get away with it.

A traffic stop usually involved a case of rot gut and an automatic weapon being seized.

[THE_WIZARD_]

"...clowns to the left of me...jokers to the right..."

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well, Biden's claims of a great economy and lowest unemployment in decades as one of his great policy achievements won't seem like that to the 7000 DIsney employees that are being canned starting this week. Layoff's are coming, and a lot of them, as recessionary pressures mount and company's tighten their belts to preserve profits. Shit, the Fed wants a 6% unemployment rate and Biden may be tagged with that outcome milestone as Powell keeps raising interest rates to cause it while lowering infaltion to the Fed's target. I feel bad for the folks that get laid off but voters won't be happy in 18 months - right about election time.

Few Americans understand the economic shit storm that Biden's bills and the attendant cost of the spending he's laid on US tax payers. I get politics, politicians and the stories they weave that aren't close to reality. But the Biden administration's creation of this alternate economic reality intended to take the heat off the Ds and his administration, leading to his reelection and that of his political cronies in a couple of years, is a horrendous violation of the public trust. He, his administration and congressional Ds that supported the spending are betting that Americans won't see the connection. That's a dangerous COA for the progs who are going to get pantsed. The roosters are coming home to roost. Good.

Was digging into this more and the 7000 Disney employees amounts to just 3% of the total workforce.

They're reorganizing into three divisions: Entertainment, ESPN/Sports, and the Theme Parks. The parks aren't the problem and will probably be pretty unaffected by the layoffs. Disney+ is the albatross. It's lost over a billion two straight quarters and I'm not sure if it's ever turned a profit since inception. They either have to get costs down a lot or raise the subscription price significantly. Iger says going forward they won't even be reporting on their # of subscribers, just report overall revenue.

Talked about streaming quite a bit in the past and the bottom line is that the business model is probably unsustainable.

[Mike]

They lost 2.4 million subscribers last quarter. I added to the current quarter earlier in the week.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Meanwhile new jobless claims keep dropping.

U.S. weekly jobless claims drop to nine-month low; productivity gains speed | Reuters

Possible explanations:

1) Large well-known companies are doing layoffs but they only represent a tiny share of the economy and possibly overhired during the pandemic. See Amazon and other logistics companies kept busy when everyone was primarily shopping online.

2) People laid off but collecting a severance are usually ineligible to receive unemployment depending on how its paid out. This was my case back when I was laid off by Chesapeake in 2013. I continued to receive a biweekly paycheck for almost 3 months. I imagine most people laid off at big tech firms are receiving generous severance packages.

3) Along those lines there could still be lots of job openings for highly skilled people and people laid off Monday have a new job by Friday. Also my case way back in 2013. Until firms across the economy stop hiring, then high profile layoffs won't affect the unemployment rate much. And the December jobs data showed that jobs are still plentiful.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yeah, this whole situation regarding employment rates in the US and the Fed sticking with the line that low rates feed inflation may be part of the inflation problem but it is wrong to treat it as a sole cause of inflation. Well, I mean the Fed is focused on it. That makes the MSM report its the only factor and ignores pointing out there are multiple factors at play contributing to the current 6.5% US inflation rate.*

I don't think any sensible economist doesn't rate government spending as right up there as a major cause of inflation in the US. My post emphasized that the Biden administration's spending is historically high. I was thoroughly dismayed as Joe tried to create this alternate US economic reality of his in his SOTU address. He just ignored it in failing to recognize spending as a big problem that will lock taxpayers in to high tax rates for a decade or more. Instead he touted the economic benefits of his policies out of proportion to the downsides of it that he scrupulously avoided. That, to me, represents serious damage to the public trust going forward ...... for anyone paying attention (and few are). Going forward as employers tighten their belts to protect profits, the unemployment roosters will come home to roost. But at least will have inflation below 6.5%.

* US Inflation Rate is at 6.45%, compared to 7.11% last month and 7.04% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 3.27%.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Just so you are aware...no POTUS has ever created a single job. They are created by private industry. There are countries where the public sector creates jobs however...it's called Commun ism and Socialism.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Why is Disney struggling? In particular Disney+? Watch this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIj2liaAwt4

[Dr. Strangelove]

Remember the old days when we used to have intelligent Husker fans around, like Cool Breeze, Entropy, Ed, and THE_PROPHET_?

[THE_WIZARD_]

I killed THE_PROPHET_...and can prove it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Odd coincidence? The cops say there's no connection to the OTHER Republican councilwoman who was killed last week. The two victims didn't serve in the same town and the guy who was killed this morning wasn't currently on the city council but still kinda strange. The suspect in the second shooting killed himself.

New Jersey council member Russell Heller is fatally shot one week after another state lawmaker's slaying (nbcnews.com)

[THE_WIZARD_]

Remember the old days when we used to have intelligent Buckeye fans around, like NKOT, jrg98 and The Talent?

[Dr. Strangelove]

I killed jrg98....and can prove it.

[THE_WIZARD_]

LAIR!!!!!