A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
GNC has filed for bankruptcy. This video explains the reasons behind it while taking at their unique history.
This is the first time Company Man has identified stock buybacks as a contributing factor in a company declaring bankruptcy. Usually it's private equity leveraging a company and making it vulnerable to bankruptcy during downturns, which happened to KB Toys, Sears and KMart, Toys R Us, Art Van, J. Crew, and Chuck E. Cheese's, although I failed to mention it until now. However, I might see stock buybacks as a cause of cash flow problems more often as the pandemic-causedrecession continues.
That's it for the Retail Apocalypse for today. Stay tuned for my annual Bastille Day entry.
The 2020 Puerto Rico Democratic presidential primary is currently taking place in July 12, 2020.[1] The primary was scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 29, 2020, but Puerto Rican governor Wanda Vazquez postponed the date to April 26, 2020,[2] amid concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico.[3] The approved delay was signed by the Puerto Rican governor on March 21.[2] It had then been postponed indefinitely until a date was chosen.[4] The Puerto Rico primary is an open primary, with the territory awarding 59 delegates, of which 51 are pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary.
It doesn't seem like there are any other offices on the ballot, as the Wikipedia articles for both the 2020 New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico primaries and the 2020 Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico primaries still describe those elections as "postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic." Also, what passed for Puerto Rico's Republican Primary has already been held with Wikipedia reporting "The Republican Party of Puerto Rico held an online poll of party leaders on June 5, 2020, in lieu of an actual primary, awarding all 23 of its pledged delegates to the 2020 Republican National Convention to Incumbent President Donald Trump." That was a virtual convention, not a primary. Still, I doubt it would have changed the outcome if it were a primary.
With the information out of the way, it's time for today's entertainment, consisting of two marching bands visiting southern California for the Rose Parade recorded by Music213. Sorry, no drum corps in Puerto Rico. Follow over the jump for the marching music.
Today is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Summer Solstice, so it's Souther, a holiday created by John Michael Greer and entrusted to me. He also designated the wombat as the animal mascot for the holiday. Since the first celebration fell on National Ice Cream Day and the holiday usually happens during July, which is National Ice Cream Month, the activity to celebrate the day is eating ice cream. If I were composing this entry on my desktop, I would be embedding a video of The Wombats singing "Ice Cream" and another video from Tipsy Bartender of an ice cream drink, but my home broadband is out again, so I am writing this on my smartphone. Sigh, no videos, no links, and no preview images.*
Here's to hoping this gets fixed soon. In the meantime, Happy Souther!
*ETA: No tags, either. I just fixed that now that my home broadband is back up. The rest of the absences remain.
For this year's celebration, I'm going to take a different take from years past, when I examined the holiday directly. Instead, I'm using it as an opportunity to update my readers on two factors that affect a country's population, birthrates and death rates, which I examine indirectly through lifeexpectancy. Birth rates have been declining since 2008 and life expectancy has been falling since 2014, which means more people are dying younger. It's time to see if either of those have changed.
The latest numbers from the CDC show that U.S. births continued to fall last year, leading to the fewest number of newborns in 35 years: There were just 3.7 million births in 2019.
Life expectancy for Americans increased a bit in the latest CDC data, reversing a downward trend. The first gain in four years is due in part to a decline in cancer deaths.
That's good news, but I have my doubts that the improvement will survive the pandemic. My readers and I will have to wait until next year to find out.
On the one hand, the U.S. is doing its part to slow down population growth. On the other hand, [this means] a possible shrinking economy in the future, which is bad for business as usual. It's time to be a good environmentalist and recycle what I wrote last year.
I have been in favor of zero population growth for as long as I can remember. However, I'm not sure the U.S. economy is set up for a stable or slowly declining population, a point I made in the Hipcrime Vocab: Why Slowing Population Growth is a Problem. We are going to have to figure how to do so. Otherwise, I might live long enough to experience the wisdom of the saying "Be careful what you wish for; you might get it."
Here's to hoping the U.S. learns how to thread that needle.
The status of Puerto Rico has been a subject of debate since the U.S. took control of the island in 1898. In 1901, the Supreme Court wrote that Puerto Rico and other new U.S. territories were “inhabited by alien races” and so may be impossible to govern “according to Anglo-Saxon principles.” The island has remained a U.S. territory ever since.
Following the recent disasters on the island – including a devastating hurricane and a series of earthquakes – Puerto Rico’s second-class status is once again in the spotlight. Should Puerto Rico become America’s 51st state?
NBCLX storyteller Bianca Graulau examines the history of the island’s unusual relationship with the U.S., and the statehood debate that has divided even Puerto Ricans.
Critics say Puerto Rico's power grid isn’t much more resilient than it was before Hurricane Maria, despite billions of dollars awarded in contracts. After Maria, some Puerto Ricans went nine months without power, and they fear it could happen again this hurricane season. NBCLX storyteller Bianca Graulau spoke to a family who lost a loved one when he had an asthma attack after the hurricane and no electricity to use his breathing machine.
It's been a long time since I've mentionedChris Christie on this blog, but I was neither that surprised that he got involved in consulting about Puerto Rico's power problems nor surprised that Puerto Rico may not be getting all that it paid for.
As for the question of statehood, that's on the ballot this November. Ballotpedia has a page on the referendum, which will be held concurrently with the general election in November. While I'm rooting for statehood, I'm not Puerto Rican. I suspect that, should the opposition to state fully participate, which I hope for the sake of a legitimate result they do, the outcome will be just as likely for continuing the Commonwealth or negotiating for Free Association. On the other hand, if statehood wins, it will be the third time in a row that the voters chose the option I favor. That written, whatever the people of Puerto Rico choose, I'll support it.
Enough about the history and politics of Puerto Rico's relationship with the rest of the United States. Follow over the jump for the piña colada recipes to celebrate today.
Going from the ridiculous to the sublime, Chuck E. Cheese's is not the most recent retail bankruptcy. Brooks Brothers filed for Chapter 11 today. I guess no one needs a business suit when they work from home and conduct business over Zoom. When I get a good video about it, I'll post an entry about it here. Stay tuned.
Apparel brand Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, as the coronavirus pandemic claimed another storied retail brand. The retailer began in 1818 and prided itself on dressing 40 U.S. presidents. Early to the office-casual look, it became known for its button-down oxford shirts and sports jackers. But rent had become a burden, and the pandemic torpedoed a sale process that began in 2019.
The parent company of Men's Wearhouse and Jos. Bank is eyeing filing for bankruptcy.
Tailored Brands was facing sales challenges even before office workers started working from home and events like weddings were postponed.
Business Insider reports a number of workwear and special events clothing is struggling amid the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
Brooks Brothers is considering closing three factories in July, and Banana Republic was a low point of Gap Inc.'s earnings report last week.
In this crisis...Banana Republic was disadvantaged in its product mix as customers opted for casual style. Sonia Syngal CEO, Gap Inc.
If (when) Taylored Brands, which also runs Moore's and K&G Fashion Superstore, files for bankruptcy and a reputable source uploads a video about, I'll blog about it. I should also write an entry about Zoom, which I have used for years for Coffee Party business and is allowing people to attend meetings and classes while working and studying from home. Company Man has a video about the company that I will use. He also has uploaded a video yesterday about GNC, which announced it would close 900 stores last year. I plan on using that for another entry, making it the second update to Chuck E. Cheese, GNC, and Tuesday Morning all file for bankruptcy, tales of the Retail Apocalypse during the pandemic featuring a Company Man video.
Chuck E. Cheese's has filed for bankruptcy, a headline I never wanted to see. This video investigates the deeper reasoning behind it while taking a look at their eventful history.
As usual, Company Man did a great job of researching and presenting the topic, which proved popular beyond his wildest imaginings. Here's what he posted on Twitter two days later with the caption of "What?!"
Two days later, he tweeted "My latest video has gotten such a strong and positive response that I wanted to thank everyone for supporting it. I believe many people that follow me here tend to be the earliest viewers so I do appreciate it." He continued expressing his appreciation on July 5th, tweeting, "I'm still stunned by the great response to my Chuck E. Cheese's video. After a little more than a week it has over 50,000 likes which is already more than any other video I've ever made. Everyone has been so terrific." It may have more likes, but it still has 1.7 million fewer views than his first and most watched video, which I featured in Company Man and WXYZ on KMart, a tale of the retail apocalypse. Let's see how long it takes to get there.
Going from the ridiculous to the sublime, Chuck E. Cheese's is not the most recent retail bankruptcy. Brooks Brothers filed for Chapter 11 today. I guess no one needs a business suit when they work from home and conduct business over Zoom. When I get a good video about it, I'll post an entry about it here. Stay tuned.
Governor John Carney on Wednesday signed into law House Bill 346, legislation sponsored by House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst that allows Delawareans to vote by mail in the 2020 primary, general and special elections.
That wasn't specifically about this primary, but it is important election reform news just the same.
In May, SpaceX and NASA launched their historic DM-2 mission while protests over the death of George Floyd roiled the country. Can the space industry hope to unite Americans behind a common cause, when it largely ignores the division and injustice here on the ground?
When I wrote in a footnote to Samantha Bee on Trump and the police attacking the press that "I haven't examined the first part, the 'today is 1968' comparison much, but I have something planned...that should work," this was what I had in mind. It explictly makes the comparison between now and 1968-1969, when the Apollo 8 through Apollo 11 missions were happening but so were protests and demonstrations like the ones this month and last. The video also points out that the unifying effect of the Apollo missions, even the successful failure of Apollo 13, is remembered as larger now than it was at the time. For Verge Science, which is very much pro-space-exploration, that's quite an admission.
Speaking of admissions, The Vintage Space uploaded Space Exploration is All Politics last week, which I think goes well with Verge Science's video.
Amy Shira Teitel of The Vintage Space is also very pro-space, but recognizes the reality of why countries pursue space exploration. So should my readers, which is why I included her video.
