Posted on 06/06/2020 4:17:37 AM PDT by EyesOfTX
Oh, to be a fly on the wall for this call. – Chicago’s radical Mayor Lori Lightweight, er, Lightfoot refused to allow her police department to effectively put down the mass riots that have taken place in her city over the past 11 days. She also refused to activate the National Guard to provide assistance to the police department before the rioting had done hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and resulted in multiple deaths, over and above the 50-60 murders that take place in her city every month.
Lightfoot and her city council are, to put it simply, active enemies of the people in Chicago, and as such, they are active enemies of the businesses who serve those people. They are radical leftists who care nothing about people’s lives and livelihoods, and everything about obtaining and wielding political power for their own personal gain. That is who and what they are.
So it was that she had a pretty tough story to tell when she held a conference call on Friday with leaders of Wal-Mart and other big retailers whose stores she personally allowed to be looted, vandalized and destroyed in the days since the death of George Floyd. The worthless, subversive Mayor admitted that she “pleaded” with these business leaders not to abandon Chicago. One can only wonder what her messages of assurance might have been, especially to Wal-Mart, which reportedly lost 7 stores to Lightfoot’s own mismanagement.
After the past 11 days, there of course can be no rational business case to be made for Wal-Mart or any other business with the means to get out to remain in Chicago, given that the city’s government has obviously abandoned all pretense of doing anything real to provide civic security. But of course, most of those businesses will reopen, no doubt based on false assurances from Lightfoot, only to see it happen all over again in November after President Donald Trump wins his re-election.
Because that’s coming, and it’s coming in a very big way.
Back in 2018, as the Democrat Party was actively fomenting and staging “abolish ICE” riots in Los Angeles and other Democrat-controlled cities, I wrote about America’s new reality, which is the fact that one of our two major political parties now sees rioting, looting and burning cities as just another tool of politics. Of course, that Party has trended in that direction since the 1960’s, but in modern times its leaders have become quite open and frank about it.
Think about it: Over the past week we have seen the spectacle of Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi participating in the violent demonstrations in front of the White House in which more than 60 Secret Service agents have been injured. We have had the abject refusal by Democrat mayors all over the country to allow their police departments to protect the citizenry and quell the riots. We have seen the mayor of Washington, DC endorse the riots by painting “Black Lives Matter” – the name of one of the domestic terrorist groups who have fomented and conducted the riots – on a two block stretch of 17th Street near the White House.
Even more telling is what we have not heard from Democrat leaders. We have not heard a single one of them condemn the rioting. We have not heard a single one of them disavow their support for Antifa and Black Lives Matter. We have not heard a single one of them say a word about the tragic deaths of a dozen or more black lives, including retired Police Captain David Dorn in St. Louis, as a result of these riots.
Any astute business leader at Wal-Mart or any of the other major retailers who saw their shops destroyed by these Democrat-sponsored riots would summarily reject any appeal from Lightfoot to stick around and go through it all again in a few months. But they will all no doubt do so, though, due mainly to political pressure, even as their insurance and paid security costs skyrocket, and the flight out of the city by most sane people dramatically reduce their customer base in the months and years to come.
Because Democrats destroy everything they touch, and if you’re doing business in Chicago, they’re touching you in a very big way.
That is all.
Yes, indeed. “Shrink” costs US retailers $40-$50 billion every year. Over a third of that is shoplifting, and another third is employee theft.
And no wonder. Shoplifting was hardly treated like a crime even before the recent push by Soros-backed DAs and mayors to effectively decriminalize it. In Texas, a first offense of theft under $100 is punishable only by a fine up to $500–not too far off from a speeding ticket. A second offense, or a theft of over $100 but less than $750, technically carries a jail sentence, but in reality is almost never imposed.
Kind of makes one feel like a sucker for playing by the rules.
Why shouldn’t those losses be tax deductible? It’s an income tax, not a gross revenue tax, and money lost to theft is not income.
Plus I am not sure why it isn’t a problem for Walmart if it is tax deductible. They lose over $2 billion per year to shrink. Deducting $2 billion from taxable corporate income saves them $420 million in taxes. That’s still a $1.58 billion net loss.
Without WalMart or Target, the looters will loot individual homes instead. It will get uglier and bloodier next time. Groot knows this.
It’s not just Walmart that Lightfoot has to worry about.
Looters and vandals destroyed almost all high-end retail on Magnificent Mile. Some of the most exclusive stores in the world had storefronts on North Michigan Avenue.
If they don’t re-open, the loss in both sales and real estate taxes will be devastating for the City. It could also trigger defaults on the mortgages on all of that retail property.
You just proved my point.....she’s DUMBER than a BAG OF ROCKS!
I know it would be difficult for the larger retailers to just move out of the Chicago area & abandon a lucrative market, yet it seems like the only thing they can sensibly do. It would seem like staying there would only cost more in the long run than to build a store in a smaller market area. Either that, or they need to actively campaign against mayors & governors who won’t fulfill their obligations to “serve & protect” in such difficult situations. These mayors & governors need to learn they can’t play both sides of the fence at once.
bookmark
She wants communism but doesn’t like the effects of it? They are a confusing and evil bunch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.