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Category Archives: My Opinion

These Sears and Kmart stores will start liquidation sales as early as this week


This was on the books when MR. Lampert (Lamprey?) used his money making skills to combine the two companies and then under the guise of company improvements made changes counter to what would be normally done to create a better sales experience for customers, such as updating stores and fixtures, using the abilities of the existing workers. There was no true use of upper management (the best ones) to determine what is the correct course to follow. Then he (lamprey) lent millions to the company knowing they could not pay it back since there was no merchandise in any reasonable amounts to garner sales which is revenue to pay the loan back. Then there is the tactic of closing stores when their leases were up with the explanation that they were not profitable, those moves did not generate any revenue but saved the cost of leases and payrolls. The merchandise was shipped to some central location for liquidation and to existing stores rather than take care of seasonal merchandise needs. Essentially Mr. Lampert wants out and running the 2 companies into the ground was the way to do it.MA

By Tomi Kilgore

Published: Aug 27, 2018 1:02 p.m. ET

Shares fell toward a record low after tumbling nearly 40% so far this month

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By

TomiKilgore

Reporter and editor

Sears Holdings Corp. has provided a list of 46 unprofitable stores, across 28 states, that it will close in November.

The number includes 33 Sears stores and 13 Kmart stores. The struggling department store chain said liquidation sales at the closing stores will begin as early as Aug. 30.

Shares SHLD, +1.82%  bounced 0.9% in morning trade Friday, after slumping 5.9% on Thursday to close at a record low of $1.11. They have tumbled 39% this month and 89% this year. In comparison, the SPDR S&P Retail exchange-traded fund XRT, -0.56%  has run up 15% year to date and the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.76%  has gained 7.4%.

Earlier this summer, Sears provided an updated list of 78 Sears and Kmart stores that it said would close in September.

The company had originally said in May that it had identified 100 non-profitable stores, and that it would begin closing 72 of those stores in the coming months. At that time, Sears initially provided a list of 63 stores it would begin closing in early September, then updated that list in early June to 68 stores, then added 10 more stores to the list in late June that it said would begin closing in late September.

“We continue to evaluate our network of stores, which is a critical component to our integrated retail transformation, and will make further adjustments as needed,” the company said in a statement. “We thank associates affected by these store closures for their many contributions to our company. Eligible associates will receive severance and will have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Kmart or Sears stores.”

 

Here is the latest list of store closures:

Store Address City State
Sears Flagstaff Mall, 4800 N. US HWY 89 Flagstaff Arizona
Kmart 3625 East 18th St. Antioch California
Kmart 1075 Shaw Ave. Clovis California
Kmart 6310 W 3rd. St. Los Angeles California
Sears Capitola Mall, 4015 Capitola Rd. Santa Cruz California
Kmart 935 Sweetwater Rd. Spring Valley California
Sears 2424 Highway 6 and 50 Grand Junction Colorado
Kmart 589 Bridgeport Ave. Milford Connecticut
Kmart 301 College Sq. Newark Delaware
Sears 1625 NW 107th Ave. Doral/Miami Florida
Sears Coastland Ctr., 2000 9th St. N Naples Florida
Sears 2266 University Square Mall Tampa-University Florida
Sears 2860 Cumberland Mall Atlanta Georgia
Sears 100 Mall Blvd. Ste 300 Brunswick Georgia
Sears Oglethorpe Mall, 7810 Abercorn St. Savannah Georgia
Sears 1631 E Empire St. Bloomington Illinois
Kmart 3231 Chicago Rd. Steger Illinois
Sears 4201 Coldwater Rd. Fort Wayne Indiana
Sears 3000 Mall Rd. Florence Kentucky
Sears 1914 Hammond Square Dr. Hammond Louisiana
Sears 50 Holyoke St. Holyoke Massachusetts
Sears Silver City Galleria Taunton Massachusetts
Sears 1250 Jackson Xing 1-94 Jackson Michigan
Kmart 2308 Highway 45 N Columbus Mississippi
Kmart 11 South Kings HWY 61 Cape Girardeau Missouri
Sears 1500 South Willow St. Manchester New Hampshire
Sears 77 Rockingham Park Blvd. Salem New Hampshire
Sears 4409 Black Horse Pike Mays Landing New Jersey
Sears 1400 Union Tpke. New Hyde Park New York
Sears 578 Aviation Rd. Queensbury/Glen Falls New York
Kmart 605 Old Country Rd. Riverhead New York
Sears 200 Eastview Mall Victor New York
Sears 4601 Glenwood Ave. Raleigh-Crabtree North Carolina
Sears 9505 Colerain Ave. Cincinnati-Northgate Ohio
Sears 2700 Miamisburg Centerville Rd. Dayton Ohio
Kmart 440 NW Burnside Rd. Gresham Oregon
Sears 11800 SE 82nd Ave. Happy Valley/Portland Oregon
Sears Post Oak Mall College Station-Bryan Texas
Sears 400 Memorial City Way Houston-Memorial Texas
Sears 7453 S Plaza Center Dr. West Jordan Utah
Sears 12000 Fair Oaks Mall Fairfax Virginia
Sears 8800 NE Vancouver Mall Dr. Vancouver Washington
Kmart 101 Great Teays Blvd. Scott Depot West Virginia
Sears 4720 Golf Rd. Eau Claire Wisconsin
Sears Valley View Mall, 4200 US HWY 16 La Crosse Wisconsin
Kmart 2150 South Douglas HWY Gillette Wyoming
Sears Holdings

In Sears’ most recent public disclosure of Sears and Kmart stores counts, which was detailed in its quarterly 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, there were 894 full-line and specialty retail stores in the U.S. as of May 5, 2018.

Don’t miss: Yes, Sears is likely to collapse, but its biggest stakeholder will be just fine.
See also: Sears adds more merchandise to online marketplace, and Sears CEO’s hedge fund offers to buy Kenmore brand for $400 million.

Arizona candidate groused about McCain family before he died


Do we really need another liar in Government? MA
Associated Press 13 hours ago

PHOENIX (AP) — Hours before Sen. John McCain died on Saturday, a Republican seeking Arizona’s other U.S. Senate seat suggested that his family’s earlier announcement that he was ending cancer treatment had been timed to hurt her campaign.
Former State Sen. Kelli Ward, who lost a primary to McCain running from the right in 2016 and is now trying to win the GOP nomination for retiring Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat, made the suggestion in response to a Facebook post by a campaign aide.
According to screenshots of the conversation posted on Twitter by Arizona political reporters, the aide, Jonathan Williams, wondered if it was “just a coincidence” that the announcement of McCain ending medical treatment came the day Ward was launching a statewide bus tour, her big push before Tuesday’s primary.
Ward replied: “I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that is negative to me.”
After her response was Tweeted out, Ward deleted the post and replaced it with one claiming the media was concocting a story.
“I’ve said again and again to pray for Senator McCain & his family,” Ward wrote. “These decisions are terrible to have to make. I feel compassion for him and his family as they go through this.”
Ward has acknowledged she is the underdog in Tuesday’s primary. She faces Rep. Martha McSally and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
A message left with Ward’s campaign office on Sunday morning was not immediately returned.

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Georgia County Can’t Back Up Its Excuse For Plan To Disenfranchise Black Voters


Pre 1964 tactics remerge again under the TOTUS administration and again Congress does nothing.MA

08/22/2018 10:43 am ET Updated 17 hours ago
Officials in majority-black Randolph County lack the data to back a proposal to shutter most voting spots.

By Sam Levine

Officials in a majority-black Georgia county accused of trying to close almost all polling places to make it harder for black people to vote claimed last week that the locations couldn’t be used because of accessibility problems for people with disabilities.
But Randolph County doesn’t have a single recent report, analysis or document supporting the idea that it needs to close seven of its nine polling places due to accessibility issues, a lawyer for the county told HuffPost on Tuesday in response to a public records request.
HuffPost requested records from the county dating back to March 1, 2018. The county hired Michael Malone, an outside elections consultant now pushing for the closures, on April 2. But according to the county, it has no written record of evidence to back his recommendations.
“There is no document, report or analysis studying the handicap accessibility of polling places in Randolph County and the cost of fixing them within the time frame specified in your open records request,” Hayden Hooks, an attorney with the firm Perry & Walters, which represents Randolph County, wrote in an email. The county has no record of such a document in the past year, Hooks added.
The county’s admission “proves that their alleged concern about [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance is a sham,” said Sean Young, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, which has threatened to sue the county if it closes the polling locations. “This is not about ADA compliance, because if it were, they would have produced a study or analysis of what they believe are ADA violations and what can be done about them.”
The southwest Georgia county has a population of just over 7,000, more than 61 percent of whom are African-American. It tends to lean Democratic. Barack Obama carried the county in 2008 and 2012, as did Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Just over 30 percent of Randolph County residents live below the poverty line. The ACLU has said the county’s black voters are less likely to own a car and, without public transportation, will have face difficulty traveling longer distances to reach the polls.

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As deficit grows, GOP leaders eye cuts to Medicare, Social Security


This is the work of Paul Ryan and Bitch McConnell, they are looking to take earned money from Social Security recipients and those that have the need for Government support. The big tax breaks have benefitted only the wealthy yet only a few of the 1 percenters speak out.MA 
08/21/18 08:40 AM

By Steve Benen
Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), who currently chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, sat down with CNBC’s John Harwood, who asked the Ohio Republican about the fact that the deficit is soaring in the wake of his party’s tax breaks.
Predictably, the congressman responded to the issue the way GOP lawmakers nearly always respond to the issue.
Harwood: No misgivings about a tax cut that was not paid for, that’s allowing debt and deficits to rise like it is now?
Stivers: I do think we need to deal with our some of our spending. We’ve got to try to figure out how to spend less.
Note the pivot: massive tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations has turned a modest budget shortfall into an enormous budget shortfall. Stivers sees that as a problem in need of attention, not by reversing course on regressive tax policies, but by looking at spending.
And that, naturally, led to a conversation between Stivers and Harwood on social-insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare – what are frequently referred to as “entitlements” – which Republicans want to cut in order to clean up the budget mess they created with tax cuts.
If this sounds familiar, there’s a good reason for that. It was just a few months ago that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the “name of the game on debt and deficits” is cutting “entitlements.”
At face value, it’s difficult to take the rhetoric seriously. If Republican policymakers were genuinely concerned about the budget deficit, they wouldn’t have passed unnecessary tax breaks for people who don’t need them, without even trying to find a way to pay for the cuts. No one should accept the premise that GOP leaders are sincere about fiscal responsibility.
But even more important is the bigger picture: GOP officials like Stivers and Ryan are helping prove Democrats right about one of the most serious threats posed by the Republican tax plan.

As we discussed in March, the debate over the GOP plan may have been fairly brief – Republicans pushed their scheme through quickly to get ahead of public opposition – it featured plenty of Democrats arguing vociferously that its proponents would pass tax cuts for the wealthy, blow up the deficit, and then target Social Security and Medicare, crying about the importance for “fiscal responsibility.”
Ryan wasted no time confirming Democrats’ fears. The Speaker started talking up Medicare cuts in December, and Social Security cuts soon after. Now the chair of the NRCC is signaling similar intentions.
It’s quite a message Republicans are taking into the midterm elections, isn’t it? Donald Trump’s party pushed through unpopular tax breaks, which led to unpopular deficits, which GOP leaders hope to address though unpopular cuts to celebrated pillars of modern American society such as Social Security and Medicare.
Good luck with that.

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Unable to Resist


I am unable to resist pointing out that our titular national leader(?) aka TOTUS can not be classified as either or, neither nor and even what the hell. This space waster is simply an ego driven unfortunate who has ascended to the highest office in the land through the limited or lack of ill to look beyond this election and understand that his actions will pull on the lives of us all- NO ONE escapes the consequences. The often repeated lies and mis information spewed daily  via tweet is not only dishonest but totally disingenuous. This current situation is being directed by him according to how he conducted his business-(poorly) by with an iron fist and no regard to consequences. Unfortunately the consequences will be ours and with no way to redress the harm even if he goes to jail. I an unable to resist implicating the Congress of seat fillers who have gone along with this destruction and will expect to be reelected. It is OUR REPONSIBILITY as voters to oust TOTUS , Congress and any allied forces that hold elected office. It will take years to get to a point of balance with hopefully people who have the where with all to govern with integrity.

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America First or First and Only Americans


There is a very long list of Hyphenated Americans but there is only 1 (one) indigenous American group (s) who were here before Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci (the country’s namesake). Eons ago what is now North America was connected to the European continent by a land bridge between Alaska and Russia. This allowed early humans to cross over to what is now the North American continent. These early settlers are the Original “Americans” not the later visitors and settlers.
The rapid and extensive spread of the various European powers from the early 15th century onwards had a profound impact upon many of the indigenous cultures with whom they came into contact. The exploratory and colonial ventures in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific often resulted in territorial and cultural conflict, and the intentional or unintentional displacement and devastation of the indigenous populations.
The Canary Islands had an indigenous population called the Guanches whose origin is still the subject of discussion among historians and linguists.[16] Since the early settlement and subsequent governance by an assortment of European countries there were an olio of  Nationalities with skin color’s from white to black and languages from English to Bantu. All of this is said to emphasize that the only “true Americans” are the indigenous who arrived over the land bridge and they were essentially beat into submission by “foreign” invaders from Europe. (wikipedia)

Modern times have brought the idea that true Americans are White which is incorrect as the list of non indigenous Americans (or hyphenated) goes like this:

African -Americans, Irish-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Scottish-Americans, German-Americans, Franco-Americans, Russian- Americans, Italian-Americans, Swiss-Americans and so on. There are no true Americans except the indigenous folks who crossed and lived on the land bridge about 13000 years ago. So the facts remain that modern day America is composed of about 90% immigrants leaving the indigenous Americans in the minority and the First and only AMERICANS.

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Typical Case of Trumpism


Trump revoked Brennan’s access because he believes that Brennan has exhibited “erratic conduct” and questionable credibility. I would suggest that the reasons for revocation of Mr. Brennan’s security clearance apply more to TOTUS and the White house staff than anyone else. On the other hand it is apparently alright for Mick Mulvaney to remove protections against predatory lending for the Military and other Americans . It is Ok to separate children and parents who are legally seeking asylum, it is lawful to assess tariffs under the guise of fair trade correction. This President’s has one goal and that is to be a better President than previous White House occupants but apparently has no clue how to do it. The thoughts for action come into his head with no rational background and the details are left to lackeys who are afraid not to do what he wants no matter the consequences. Where is the Congress in all of this?  The seat fillers led by the Dupublican party  are sitting quietly on the side while certain factions of their party  keep coming up with  unfounded reasons for committees to investigate  voter fraud, undocumented workers committing crimes and undoing the ACA. The US’s standing in the world is at possibly an all time low and our greatest Allies have taken a step back to try to understand what is happening here. This is in effect the isolationism that eventually put us in jeopardy and eventually 2 world wars. The intervening years with American leadership (however flawed) has assisted in a more peaceful world with a larger amount of prosperity. It is well to remember that  no system of government is perfect but always correctable  and able to be tweaked for the better. What we currently have is essentially a “Rogue” state tacitly condoned by the in power party and many of its constituents, some of whom appear to be un or under informed.

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Follow Up On Trump’s Parade, blame game continues.


Trump cancels military parade, blames D.C. officials for high cost
Dartunorro Clark 41 mins ago

President Donald Trump said Friday he has canceled a planned military parade this fall in the nation’s capital because of the “ridiculously high” price tag given by D.C. officials.
“The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it,” Trump tweeted.
“Never let someone hold you up! I will instead attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!”

On Thursday, a defense official told NBC News that the upper estimate of the cost of the parade was $92 million, a figure first reported by CNBC. The potential cost was way above initial estimates.
The military parade was requested by Trump earlier this year.
The Department of Defense said Thursday that the parade was delayed until 2019.
“The Department of Defense and White House have been planning a parade to honor America’s military veterans and commemorate the centennial of World War I,” said Col. Rob Manning on Thursday. “We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.”

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Trump’s military parade in Washington now delayed until 2019


Wouldn’t TOTUS’ time be better spent actually looking for ways to spend money to help the country’s needs in infrastructure rather than a parade to celebrate his own ego. We (some of us) elected a President (so some of us thought) not a dictator wannabe.MA.
Courtney Kube 11 hrs ago

WASHINGTON — The multimillion-dollar military parade through the nation’s capital requested by President Donald Trump has been delayed until 2019, a Defense Department spokesman said Thursday.
“The Department of Defense and White House have been planning a parade to honor America’s military veterans and commemorate the centennial of World War I,” said Col. Rob Manning. “We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.”
Earlier Thursday, a defense official told NBC News that the upper estimate of the cost of the parade was $92 million, a figure first reported by CNBC.

The estimate had risen substantially since February, when White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told Congress the price could be $10 million to $30 million.
The cost was initially reported as $12 million, and was based on the cost of the victory parade held in the capital after the 1991 Gulf War, said the official. The Washington Post estimated the cost of the 1991 victory parade as $8 million.
The defense official told NBC News that the internal estimate of the cost of the parade rose to $25 million after adjusting for more than 25 years of inflation. But that estimate did not take into account expenses borne by other federal agencies and some nonmilitary line items.
The $92 million figure is the current uppermost estimate, said the official, and includes security, transportation and other expenses.
“The American Legion appreciates that our president wants to show in a dramatic fashion our nation’s support for our troops,” American Legion National Cmdr Denise Rohan said in a statement posted to Twitter. “However, until such time as we can celebrate victory in the War on Terrorism and bring our military home, we think the parade money would be better spent fully funding the Department of Veteran Affairs and giving our troops and their families the best care possible.”
As NBC News first reported, serious planning for the parade began in June, four months after Trump directed the Defense Department to organize it.
“There is only one person who wants this parade,” said a senior U.S. official at the time, referring to Trump.
Trump got the idea for the parade while viewing France’s Bastille Day Parade in July 2017.
“We’re going to have to try to top it,” he later told French President Emmanuel Macron.
By January, Trump was floating the idea with military leaders and in late February, he made it official with a memo to Defense Secretary James Mattis.
A March memo laid out the skeleton of a plan: a parade from the White House to the Capitol to include only wheeled vehicles (because tanks could damage the streets), capped by a big display of air power and vintage aircraft, with themes including veterans, women in the military and medal of honor recipients.
After that, three months went by with no major planning. With so many more pressing issues, the parade just was not a high priority for the military, a senior defense official said.
Officials recommended that the route begin at the Capitol, pass the White House and end at the National Mall, and the date was moved up a day to Nov. 10, from Nov. 11.
Some Washington lawmakers have raised concerns about the cost of a parade, with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., calling it a “fantastic waste of money to amuse the president.” And some analysts have said that without an important military victory to justify the parade, it smacked of North Korean-style posturing.
“There’s no reason to do it aside from bolstering Trump’s ego,” Thomas E. Ricks, a military historian and veteran national security reporter, told NBC News this year.

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A Conundrum


When did lying to gain an office become the norm? There was always campaign rhetoric but it was more coloring a little outside the lines. In this age of mass media coverage these line squibbles have become outright lies ala prewar Germany. The German information machine seems to be a model for the Trump method of governance by False hood and abetted by a self serving Congress whose sole objective is to appease their big donors and feather their own nests. One can liken the current administration to the Georgian rule over the “Colonies” prior to the Declaration. That declaration led to the fight for independence which was won by a smaller and lesser equipped forces. Taking that information , isn’t it time we as voters did it again? Our objective should be to have better representation than we have had for many years. The problem is not who the President is, it’s the long serving members of Congress who have abdicated their oath and duty to serve with honor under the Constitution. The conundrum is do we personally evaluate each member at election time based on what they have done in the seat or accept what they tell us?

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