Newt, you don't know the half of it. The reason they need a bail-out? Two words, my friend: stock buybacks.

Back in '16, good ol' AA was ~$20 BILLION in debt. Yes, their DEBT was larger than the GDP of some nations. Bad situation, right? What to do, what to do -- HEY! I got it! Let's spend NINE FUCKING BILLION on stock buybacks. In doing so, they turned $5b in reserve cash into $550 million. Trump himself couldn't have fucked this up worse if he tried.

It gets worse. Here, I will quote from Forbes:

"The numbers boggle the mind. American Airlines spent nearly three times its current value on stock buybacks over the last six years."

It gets even worse from there.

Over the last ten years, AA spent ~$13b on stock buybacks. You know what their free cash flow was over the same 10-year period?

-$7,935 million.

That's not a typo. Their free cash flow, unique among all major airlines, is NEGATIVE. The number on their -negative- cash flow is greater than the -positive- cash flows of Jet Blue and Alaska combined.

Guess where that money went?

Shareholders? Nope.
Employees? Nope.
Improvements to the business as a whole? Nuh-uh.

If you guessed "The CEO's pocket", you win a $4 Snickers bar. If you also suspect that any bailout will end up in the same place, I'm throwing in a free Baby Ruth or an Abbazabba (your choice).

That's right: your tax-paying American ass is going to bail out these cocksuckers not to save jobs -- no fucking chance in Hell that's going to happen -- but to make Doug fucking Parker, an asshole of utterly legendary proportions who made $11.5 MILLION in 2019 thanks to those buybacks, even fucking richer.

There's not enough Prep-H in the world to compensate for that level of ass-fucking. And you WILL smile when you're getting raped, otherwise it's getting stuffed in your mouth afterwards.

(BTW: when they started this financial cocksuckery, AA was ~$60 a share. On Friday, it closed just below $13. Dough Parker still made money. The funds, including pension funds, who invested in AA @ $60? Not so much.)

I think I covered that, but to be clear, I think the protesters were TOO reserved and should have USED their guns. He was an active shooter fleeing.
I have no doubt he tried to use that skateboard. I only wish he had connected, it would have saved a life.

The kid deserves torching (metaphorically). He went looking for trouble he could solve with his gun, and made some.

Sounds like Rosenbaum was shot for no reason, in the face. If kid had really thought he was being doused with an accelerant, (and it's hard to believe he mistook an empty bag for one full of gas) firing his gun was moronic as it would likely ignite it.

Yes, fully unbiased media would be nice, but it's gone. Maybe try pbs? They're still pretty good, but dry and boring too.

Yep. What he said. I lived in Brisbane for 2+ years, 1992. Friendliest, kindest people I've ever seen, they seem to go out of their way to make you feel welcome. That's saying a lot - I'm Canadian. From time to time enjoyed convincing traveling Americans that 'Seppo' was a term of endearment, reserved just for them, and which they quickly adopted, proudly proclaiming to their fellow American travelers that "Yes, I'm a Seppo! We're all Seppo's". Kind of says it all.

Had he said anti fascist, he would have gotten 1/5.
To be honest, 1.5/5 because I do support some level of socialism, but I know he's talking the failed Venezuela style of absolutist dictatorial socialism where a totally corrupt government simply nationalized industry then mismanaged the nation into bankruptcy, not the kind we already enjoy in America that creates and funds our infrastructure, social services, military, and in fact our government that rarely converts private holdings to government property (stealing people's land for Trump's fence notwithstanding), that coincidentally is also leading the nation into bankruptcy due to criminal mismanagement.

Antifa is not really the same thing, it's barely a thing, and exactly what it is or isn't isn't a game I'm getting sucked into, it's a trap.

People can claim it's anything and pretend it's your (or my) responsibility to prove them wrong, but antifa as a movement (there is no organization by that name) is so open, disparate, unfocused, and undefined (imo all by design) that saying you stand with or against them only opens yourself to accusations of supporting anything under the sun (including the multiple acts of terrorism perpetrated by right wing extremists masquerading as antifa) with no clear defense. I'm not playing that game.

I am definitely anti fascist. I reserve my opinion on antifa until it's properly defined, which is likely never.

I think they do search at least on the days reserved for local high schools....if they still do that.
They do have signs telling you no weapons at all are allowed, and they wouldn't be happy.

Yeah. Thanks for the heads up.

*tap tap tap - click. tap tap backspace tap tap - click.*

"Reservation canceled"

Silly red neck...constitutional rights are reserved for whites in America....at least in practice.

I have to disagree that getting instructions from the top and following them to a T makes them safe. How many get killed not even knowing a cop is around, how many times have we seen cops show up and instantly shout "gun" then empty their clips, only to find no gun?
I say keep your gun in your hand highly visible, tell them out loud you have it, and if the cop reaches for theirs, use it.
Don't ever fall for the bullshit "I'm taking your gun for your safety, OK?" unless you get to take their gun for their safety first. Their racist fear doesn't trump your rights.

Cops are a gang of terrified thugs, not a peacekeeping force by any stretch. How many videos in just the last two weeks of brutish bully cops beating and shooting peaceful men women and children, shooting them point blank in the face, violently dog piling them while they're standing still, unarmed, hands raised, peacefully being interviewed on live TV...how many of these attacks were stopped by "good cops". Statistically, none. How many were excused with lies by all cops on scene before they knew they were filmed? 99.99%. Where are these mythical creatures called "good cops" when they're so desperately needed to stop the evil ones? Typically, they're nowhere.

Wait -- who the hell doesn't know about reserved words in Windows?

Only delusional cultists would say they failed to prove his motive was personal and against the national interest. Deal with it.
His "transcript", a heavily edited summary that put the best possible spin on his call proved it handily by itself, and not one word, action, or piece of evidence contradicts that conclusion.
His defence was "as president, I'm essentially king and can do no wrong, and everything is permitted. My party is in control and are too scared of me to convict." So much for faithfully preserving, protecting and defending the constitution, he can't even read one sentence from it, said it was a foreign language. (That's fact, not opinion, btw) It's obvious he has no idea whatever it says.
There was no amount of indisputable proof that would have convinced the cowardly sycophantic"republicans" to turn on Trump, they ignored all evidence provided and refused to look at any, much less investigate because they know he now owns what's left of their party and therefore their futures, and they also know the slightest step out of line makes them his target, which means losing their job, power, and family's safety because his cultists include thousands of potential domestic terrorists just itching for him to set their target.
Edit:"The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance." Thomas Paine

Edit: my theory is they reserved the dozen indisputable criminal acts they can prove until the Democrats run the Senate next year just in case he wins by hook or crook, knowing there is nothing, including cold blooded public murder, that the Republicans would convict him of.

Oops.
Ok @bobknight33, time for you to gloat. I was totally wrong about it costing us $50 billion per year....

....but I was dead on with the $87.5 billion per year figure according to the federal reserve's report....not including the tens of billions of taxpayer's money handed out to factory farms in Trump's enormous (bigger than Obama's) socialist handout program (but not to smaller privately owned farms who lost more). It also doesn't count the thousands of good jobs, factories, and farms permanently lost.
For all that money we still have no trade agreements and are in a worse position to negotiate one than when he started. No country trusts Trump's administration to fulfill it's obligations, so most negotiations are grinding to a halt.
All told, it's costing the U.S. well over $100 billion per year for just this one facet of Trump's total failures at negotiation and his utter ignorance of international trade and finance.

Winning!?! Only if you're Russia or Iran.

Your video, 'Indian' or 'Native American'? [Reservations, Part 0], has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

uh; isn't this "imprinting" along the line of Lorenz's work?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_(psychology)

I remember becoming the mom (dad?) to a quail in HS Biology class...(and nope, we didn't kill them; they went to a quail reserve)

From NYT article https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/opinion/sunday/this-is-why-uma-thurman-is-angry.html?referer=https://t.co/3KI4YYryAt?amp=1

In the famous scene where she’s driving the blue convertible to kill Bill — the same one she put on Instagram on Thanksgiving — she was asked to do the driving herself.

But she had been led to believe by a teamster, she says, that the car, which had been reconfigured from a stick shift to an automatic, might not be working that well.

She says she insisted that she didn’t feel comfortable operating the car and would prefer a stunt person to do it. Producers say they do not recall her objecting.

“Quentin came in my trailer and didn’t like to hear no, like any director,” she says. “He was furious because I’d cost them a lot of time. But I was scared. He said: ‘I promise you the car is fine. It’s a straight piece of road.’” He persuaded her to do it, and instructed: “ ‘Hit 40 miles per hour or your hair won’t blow the right way and I’ll make you do it again.’ But that was a deathbox that I was in. The seat wasn’t screwed down properly. It was a sand road and it was not a straight road.” (Tarantino did not respond to requests for comment.)

Thurman then shows me the footage that she says has taken her 15 years to get. “Solving my own Nancy Drew mystery,” she says.

It’s from the point of view of a camera mounted to the back of the Karmann Ghia. It’s frightening to watch Thurman wrestle with the car, as it drifts off the road and smashes into a palm tree, her contorted torso heaving helplessly until crew members appear in the frame to pull her out of the wreckage. Tarantino leans in and Thurman flashes a relieved smile when she realizes that she can briefly stand.

Uma Thurman said she didn't want to drive this car. She said she had been warned that there were issues with it. She felt she had to do it anyway. It took her some 15 years to get footage of the crash. (Note: There is no audio.)
“The steering wheel was at my belly and my legs were jammed under me,” she says. “I felt this searing pain and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to walk again,’” she says. “When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset. Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me. And he was very angry at that, I guess understandably, because he didn’t feel he had tried to kill me.”

Even though their marriage was spiraling apart, Hawke immediately left the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky to fly to his wife’s side.

“I approached Quentin in very serious terms and told him that he had let Uma down as a director and as a friend,” he told me. He said he told Tarantino, “Hey, man, she is a great actress, not a stunt driver, and you know that.” Hawke added that the director “was very upset with himself and asked for my forgiveness.”

Two weeks after the crash, after trying to see the car and footage of the incident, she had her lawyer send a letter to Miramax, summarizing the event and reserving the right to sue.

Miramax offered to show her the footage if she signed a document “releasing them of any consequences of my future pain and suffering,” she says. She didn’t.

Interesting suggestion.

I believe that with 1/10 the population, near today's per capita resource usage would be sustainable....although there would be a necessary time period with net zero or better emissions required to return the atmosphere to "normal" before runaway greenhouse effects and feedbacks turn earth into Venus 2.0. After that, there is an amount of emission the planet can absorb, so resource usage need not be curtailed excessively, but it wouldn't hurt.

I'm all for the lottery system if everyone draws straws, no exceptions except those willing to just move to the reservation voluntarily.
Even a lottery system simply for procreation would do wonders, but remembering the outrage at China for just allowing one child per couple, I doubt that would fly either. Also, it does leave the possibility that the lucky procreators might all be imbecilic morons incapable of following/continuing the plan...we don't want to become a species that is dumber than our pets....or do we?

I think the priorities should be reversed too, what's best for life on earth first, humanity second.

It's an extreme solution certainly, but not without merit. I doubt there'd ever be a willing acceptance of such a plan though, so a slightly more realistic solution would need to be moderated some. How's this for dystopian-but-not-quite-genocidal:
Worldwide lottery, a small percentage (total of 500M - 1B maybe) wins the right to live in what will be the new model of the world: something like what we have now, but with drastically reduced usage of non-renewable resources (until they can be replaced completely) and a target of zero negative impact on the environment as a whole. Still some version of democratic (generally at least), freedom of whatnot and such, open travel to the degree that sustainable transportation options allow, all the (again, sustainable) mod cons. I suppose different countries / regions could still run things according to their preferences, as long as the net-zero goal remains.
The other lottery entrants, the non-winners, don't need to die, hooray! They will however live on something akin to reservations, as serfs, without the right to further reproduce. These poor bastards, in exchange for not being outright murdered to save civilization, are to be consolidated into agricultural communes to do whatever they can to regrow the world's flora and fauna until they all eventually die. Their goal is not net-zero, but as far into the positive as possible. It would all be overseen according to some grand scheme(s) to be as beneficial for the overall future of humanity and life on Earth in general as possible.

Probably also unworkable, but preferable to megamurder?