Tag: Business

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Business LGBT Issues

Walmart Gives Anti-Pride Activists The Middle Finger – Refuses To Pull LGBTQ Merchandise

After anti-LBGTQ bigots started boycotts of Bud Light, Kohl’s, and Target for daring to express their support for LGBTQ equality and Pride Month, many other corporations were worried they might be next.

But the largest retailer in the country, Walmart, is making it clear they won’t be intimidated by bigots and homophobes, letting the world know they will not be pulling any of their Pride Month merchandise for anyone and no matter the consequences.

Yes, Walmart.

Reuters reports that Walmart isn’t about to be intimidated and isn’t making any concessions to bullies.

Walmart on Wednesday said it has not made any changes to its LGBTQ-related merchandise tied to Pride Month, or to security measures in place at its stores, a week after rival Target pulled some LGBTQ-themed products following customer backlash.

“We haven’t changed anything in our assortment,” Latriece Watkins, Walmart’s chief merchandising officer, said.

And if you’re thinking that Walmart doesn’t have to change anything because they don’t offer much in the way of LGBTQ merchandise, consider that they carry “rainbow-adorned flags, clothing and accessories. Its ‘Pride & Joy’ collection includes a $7.98 set of enamel pins with messages such as ‘Be you. Be Proud.’ and ‘You are enough.'”

Watkins also noted that there has been no need to increase security at its stores, many of which are located in deeply red states.

“In this particular case, when we think about security … we have not done anything in particular differently related to security in our stores.”

Online reaction to Walmart’s hardline stance has been muted, and there have been almost no calls for a boycott of the retailer. Kind of makes you wonder why the haters have chosen to exclude Walmart.

 

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Business Elections GOP Ron DeSantis

Florida Loses 2,000 Jobs After Disney Pulls $1 Billion Development Project From The State

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) loves to say that if he becomes president, he’ll run the country much the way he runs the Sunshine State.

If that’s true, news today from the Walt Disney Company suggests the United States would be in a deep recession within six months of DeSantis taking the oath of office.

According to CNBC and The New York Times, Disney has scrapped plans to open a new employee campus in Lake Nona, Florida, a decision that will cost the state 2,000 jobs and over $1 billion in potential profits.

Citing “changing business conditions” and the return of CEO Bob Iger, Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, penned a memo to employees Thursday, announcing that the company will not move forward with construction of the campus and will no longer be asking more than 2,000 California-based employees to relocate to Florida.

“This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one,” D’Amaro told employees.

The decision by Disney is the latest sparring between the company and DeSantis, who has targeted the multinational corporation simply because it dared to publicly disagree with his anti-LGBTQ law — “Don’t Say Gay” — that limits the discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation in Florida classrooms, even if the topic is raised by students.

Disney has also filed suit against the state for targeting its special Reedy Creek Improvement District, which allowed the company to operate virtually independent of any government intrusion.

DeSantis is expected to announce his bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination sometime next week.

 

Categories
Business Donald Trump

REVEALED: Ex-Prez Donald Hypocrite Owns Millions In Anheuser-Busch Stock

Ever since many conservatives began calling for a boycott of Bud Light in response to the beer’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, partnering with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney, one figure in the right-wing community has remained silent: Failed former president Donald Trump, who has yet to say a thing about the boycott.

And now we know why.

The Independent reports that Trump has a major stock investment in Anheuser-Busch and clearly doesn’t want to see the company suddenly start losing millions of dollars due to a boycott.

According to data reviewed by The Independent, it’s possible that Mr Trump’s reluctance to criticise the company that makes the middling American beverage stems from his personal financial interests.

Mr Trump’s most recent financial disclosure shows he holds a significant financial interest in Anheuser-Busch InBev, the company that produces Bud Light.

A recent disclosure report filed by Trump with the Federal Elections Commission on April 14 shows that the indicted ex-president owns between $1 and 5 million of Anheuser Busch InBev stock, which is shown under an account listed as “DJT Trust — Investment Account #2,” Business Insider notes.

However, despite the millions in Anheuser-Busch stock the twice-impeached former president owns, that doesn’t mean he isn’t a bigot when it comes to the trans community.

For example, in a video he released as part of his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump specifically remarked that if he’s elected again, he will “stop the chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation” of transgender children in the United States and vowed to use federal law enforcement against any doctor or healthcare provider who provides gender-affirming treatment to any member of the trans community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0zRRSH_pQ0

For now, Trump is happy to hold on to his Anheuser-Busch stock and expect handsome returns in the the long run, even though he won’t be able to spend any of the profits when he’s incarcerated.

Categories
Business Donald Trump Social Media

Trump’s Truth Social On The Verge Of Imploding As Feds Ramp Up Investigations

Truth Social, the social media site launched by failed one-term former president Donald Trump in February of last year, is facing financial collapse as soon as September, according to The New York Times.

Two federal investigations of a proposed merger between Digital World Acquisition Corp. and Trump Media & Technology Group could wind up costing the venture $300 million and require the company to repay millions to investors.

That deal has been waylaid by two intensifying federal investigations. One is focused on whether preliminary merger discussions between Digital World and Trump Media violated federal securities laws. The other investigation is looking at whether a group of early investors in Digital World — who were brought into the deal by [deal architect Patrick] Orlando — engaged in improper trading.

With a six-month clock ticking, it seems unlikely that the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C) will complete its investigations of possibly illegal actions taken during the founding of Truth Social, The Times adds.

Executives of Trump Media and some shareholders of Digital World have accused the S.E.C. of trying to run out the clock. In February, officials with Trump Media sent a letter to several Republican congressmen asking them to open an investigation into the S.E.C.’s refusal to approve the deal, accusing regulators of being biased against the former president. SPACs are not allowed to hold serious merger discussions before they go public, and if they do, it can violate federal securities laws. Federal authorities are trying to determine if Digital World’s talks with Trump Media were substantive enough that they should have been disclosed before the SPAC sold shares to the public in September 2021.

Those facts, according to Michael Klausner of Stanford Law School, do not bode well for Truth Social:

“If it was clearly prearranged, that was an egregious violation. The S.E.C. has the discretion to stop a merger where the disclosures violate security laws.”

Of course, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that yet another company aligned with the disgraced ex-president is imploding. After all, he’s made a career of creating companies and products that fail miserably and wind up mired in a legal morass.

Categories
Business Donald Trump The Trump Organization

Trump Org’s Failure To File Financial Documents Suggests The Company Is Collapsing: Report

Something much stranger than usual it taking place these days at the Trump Organization, which is owned and run by the failed former president and his three oldest children, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric.

According to The Daily Beast, even though it’s March and Trump Org. is supposed to have already filed financial documents with a court-appointed overseer, the company has “…not provided a 2022 statement of financial condition to any third parties, and do not intend to do so.”

The disclosure about how the Trumps haven’t made any financial statements to banks or accounting firms was made in a Feb. 3 letter written by a retired judge tasked with babysitting the Trumps’ real estate empire, in a document that was made public in court filings last week.

The Trumps “have not provided a 2022 statement of financial condition to any third parties, and do not intend to do so,” Barbara S. Jones, a former federal judge now in private practice, wrote to the state judge who appointed her.

What does that mean for the company? One of three things:

  • Trump Org. has fallen on hard financial times
  • The company has found a bank willing to do business despite a lack of financial transparency
  • The Trump Organization is lying

These are just any documents, either. They are a “statement of financial condition is a sensitive legal document that serves as a summary of a company’s assets and liabilities. But notably, it must also include disclosures describing how the numbers were put together.”

In other words, this isn’t something you don’t just blow off and still stay in business, mainly because no one wants to deal with such a secretive company that could well be on the verge of collapse.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a civil suit against the Trump Organization that is scheduled to go to trial in October. The disgraced ex-president is attempting to delay the trial and his daughter, Ivanka, has made recent court filings in which she claims she had no idea any illegal activity was taking place inside the company, a clear sign that she is is trying to distance herself from her father and his possibly illegal actions.