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Hollywood Walkouts Have Wiped $5 Billion From California's Economy, Exceeding Analysts' Estimates

Hollywood's first double strike in over 60 years has dealt a $5 billion blow to California's economy.

The entertainment industry has been largely on pause since the Writers Guild of America and the actors' union SAG-AFTRA joined the picket line together.

Now, the consequences are reverberating across Los Angeles, as the slowdown creates a knock-on effect for enterprises across the board.

Caterers, dry cleaners, truckers, car rental companies and other small businesses that support the moviemaking industry all bear the brunt of the walkout, according to Kevin Klowden, chief global strategist at the Milken Institute, which conducted the research.
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"All these different people who provide support services that make productions happen -- they're getting nailed," Klowden told the Financial Times.

"We looked at it and we talked to people -- and it was affecting restaurants and catering companies, affecting trucking companies, it was affecting welders, it was affecting construction people, it was affecting dry cleaners, it was affecting all sorts of businesses," he told Yahoo Finance last month.

The eye-watering sum even outstripped analysts' expectations of the damage. Todd Holmes, an entertainment industry professor at Cal State Northridge, had predicted a $3 billion blow to California's economy in the first 100 days of the strike.

Thanks to andycanuck.

LOL, Biden really bones up for interviews to show "mastery" of the subject matter, says Franklin "Frederick" Foer:

I did like the part where Biden feels insecure because he's stupid. Does he ever feel insecure because he's a rapist and a pedophile?

Roger Severino @RogerSeverino_

My first assignment as a junior editor at the Harvard Journal on Legislation (1999-2000) was to cite check an article submitted by one Sen. Joseph R. Biden. I was shocked by the plagiarism I discovered.

Cite checking involves formatting case citations under highly prescribed rules and searching Westlaw to make sure the cases haven't been overruled or superseded. Because I was interested in the article's topic (civil rights) I read a bunch of the cited cases all the way through.

That's when I noticed that a certain turn of phrase in an opinion sounded oddly familiar even though it was my time reading it. So I turned back to Biden's article, and there it was. He had lifted language straight out of a SCOTUS opinion, changed a couple words, and called them his own. There were no quote marks and no footnote or anything else attributing the court as the source.

I then read the piece through again and multiple other phrases sounded familiar. Turns out they too were plagiarized from opinions. I believe this merited rejecting the article outright for plagiarism so I emailed the lead editor and presented the indisputable proof. Instead of thanking me for protecting the integrity of the Journal, they covered for Biden.

They "fixed" the plagiarism by adding proper attributions and acted like the whole incident never happened. But this was no innocent mistake, where Biden "forgot" a quote mark or two which would be bad enough.

Instead, he engaged in "mosaic plagiarism" which entails taking a quote and swapping some words with synonyms to make the plagiarism harder to detect. This indicates what's known in law as "consciousness of guilt."

Worse still, Biden was *already* known to have plagiarized before this article crossed my desk yet was brazen enough to try it again.

Here's a link to the article from 2000, as published. Someone should definitely read through it and all the cited cases to see if there were any instances of mosaic plagiarism I may have missed. journals.law.harvard.edu/jol/wp-content...

Replace "SCOTUS opinion" with "court opinion" as it was likely the 4th Circuit decision in Brzonkala. Twitter doesn't let me edit for some reason.

Correction, I believe I informed the editor in person with printouts. We all had email then of course, but paper was still pretty common.

Biden snipes at Trump's job creation record. Must be some more of that "mastery" of subject matter that F. Frederick Foer was talking about.

[R]esident Joe Biden celebrated Labor Day with remarks in front of a union crowd in Philadelphia.

...

There, he touted job creation and other economic initiatives while hammering former President Donald Trump's record in a likely preview of his 2024 reelection message.

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"You wouldn't know from all the negative news you hear," Biden said, calling it "one of the greatest job creation periods in American history."

"It wasn't that long ago that 20 million people were out of work, but you didn't give up," he said. "Philadelphia didn't give up. America didn't give up."

Seeking to a draw a contrast with the Republican front-runner looking to oust him, Biden criticized Trump several times throughout his speech -- though never mentioned him by name.

"The last guy who was here, he looked at the world from Park Avenue," Biden said. "I look at it from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I look at it from Claymont, Delaware."

He compared his jobs record to Trump's as well.

"It wasn't that long ago we were losing jobs in this country. In fact, the guy who held his job before me was just one of two presidents in history ... who left office with fewer jobs in America than when he got elected to office."

You mean because of the national lockdown you and your political handlers demanded?

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"The great real estate builder, the last guy, he didn't build a damn thing," Biden said in another swipe at Trump. "Under my predecessor, infrastructure week became a punch line."

Democrats blocked most infrastructure spending.

Below, some more "mastery" by Joe Biden.

Thanks to bonhomme.

Old, but:

She looks like she already ate human meat. Specifically, Chrissy Tiegen 2023 looks like she ate Chrissy Tiegen 2011.

posted by Ace at 06:00 PM

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