Why is SEARS Going Bankrupt?

Sears Corporation will be filing bankruptcy as early as Saturday, or as late as Monday morning. Sears is the definition of a former retail/corporate powerhouse. Look at some of these companies that used to be a part of Sears: Dean Witter, Allstate, Discover Financial, Morgan Stanley (later merged with Dean Witter), Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) AKA (rest in peace, liquidated 2018) spun off: Sears Hometown, and Sears Canada in 2015. Wow look at that list! In its heyday, (think 1960’s) Sears sold everything from toys to hardware, to mail order houses, now its circling the drain at ramming speed. What caused all this death spiral you might say? Well a series of poor decisions that began with the ill-advised merger with Kmart in 2004. This is because while Sears competed in the middle to higher end, Kmart catered to the lower end customer seeking value and low prices. A fatal mistake is Sears began cross selling its most valuable brands in Kmart stores such as; Craftsman, Kenmore, and Diehard. By doing this they cheapened their brand, and due to needing to sell the product at a lower price had to cheapen their product.

Craftsman was a very trusted top of the line name in the tool category, they also came with a lifetime guarantee if it broke, by the way, it was actually good for life, not a certain number of years. As a young child, Craftsman tools were a large part of my father’s childhood. He and his father would always be working on or fixing something with Craftsman tools in hand. He always told me he could count the number of times a tool broke on one hand and usually have 3 or so fingers to spare. When it broke you simply went to the local Sears and presto, no questions asked it was replaced. No such luck anymore. The tools are made of cheap material from China that resembles the graphite found in a number 2 pencil. There is a reason they are sold at discount prices, they break with ease. Similar to when you hire folks from LaborReady or whatever they are called now, if the directions call for 1 wrench you better buy 3. Oh, and getting the tool replaced…get ready to gear up for a fight over that “lifetime warranty” means. Cheap crappy tools.

Back to a central part of this blog, the real reason for bankruptcy is CEO Eddie Lampert.

Eddie Lapert

If you are thinking the same guy who runs hedge fund ESL investments, your right. Lampert has never run a retail business, he just knows how to buy lots of stock in a company, force changes, and cash out when he makes a tidy profit; think Buffett, Icahn, and Nelson Peltz.

Lampert has actually been running a liquidation sale over the last decade to tell you the truth. He is a hedge fund guy, the only thing they know how to do is monetize assets and suck every dollar out of a company as humanly possible. Lampert inherited a company which albeit was struggling but had 3,500 stores, the company now has 700, planning to close another 150, keep 300 open and decide the fate of the other 250 in due time. This is too small a footprint to compete, more on this later. Lampert over the past few years has spun off most of Sears property (the ground/building) not the name into a different company to monetize its real estate, spun off Lands’ End into a stand-alone, mostly inside of Sears stores business, selling Craftsman to Stanley Black and Decker (by the way now available at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and pretty much everywhere). He also has loaned the company money through his fund ESL investments. By doing this he can charge a corporate bond interest rate think 8-12%, so he can suck more money out of the company. Lampert may own quite a bit of Sears stock, but he is very wise, shareholders are last in line in a bankruptcy, the banks are close to first, his loans essentially make him a creditor, and thus he will get most of his money back. Now here we are today, with Sears owing a $134 million dollar debt payment October 15th, they have no way to pay it. Enter Lampert again; offering to loan the company the money to make the payment, in exchange for Kenmore and several real estate plots the stores currently sit on. Sounds like a pretty good deal for Ole Eddie. The board is contemplating this, and I think they won’t go for it.

The moral of the story is this, we here at ReallyRight.com don’t like to see anyone lose their livelihood or see stores close but Sears hasn’t been relevant in at least 15 years. Honestly, they got rid of the Christmas (or is it Holiday) Catalog, likely to save money, bought a chain known for selling cheap crap with Blue Light Specials, and viola, it’s over. Cheapen your core brands to the point no one wants them or make it so they are now available anywhere not just exclusive to your store. In addition, ask yourself this question, what can you get at Sears that you can’t get cheaper elsewhere? Or better yet what do you go to a Sears to buy? Sears is the new Toy’s R Us, except that when it goes out of business it won’t be back, rumor has it Toy’s might be risen from the ashes like a Phoenix. It doesn’t help when you have a blood sucking hedge fund manager out only for himself who owns and runs the company.

NeverTrumpers Proven Wrong Again

Those of us that proudly voted for President Trump and supported him from the primary season to the Whitehouse have yet another accomplishment to crow about today. Trump told Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris to go pound sand and got three conservatives appointed to the Nine Circuit Court of Appeals. I told you the Ninth Circuit would be his next target for judicial reform. These two ladies burned any hope of civility and decorum with the slime attack on Brett Kavanaugh.

President Trump is plowing ahead to fill three vacancies on the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, brushing aside Democratic resistance to nominate conservative judges.

Presidents traditionally work with senators from judicial nominees’ home state — in this case, California — to put forward judicial picks. They often seek what’s known as a “blue slip,” or an opinion from those senators.

But in a snub to California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, the White House announced Wednesday that Trump had nominated Patrick Bumatay, Daniel Collins and Kenneth Kiyul Lee (all from the Golden State, and reportedly all members of the conservative Federalist Society) to the influential circuit. The court, with a sprawling purview representing nine Western states, has long been a thorn in the side of the Trump White House, with rulings against the travel ban and limits on funding to “sanctuary cities.”

Trump snubs Feinstein, Harris to nominate conservative judges to liberal 9th Circuit

I know there are more openings on that court and Trump can severely hamstring the nuttiness in California if some common-sense folks are placed on the Ninth Circuit.

Tesla Has Been Framed: Elon Musk is a Genius

I was invited to a social function last Friday to celebrate the fall ritual of Octoberfest. I engaged a person that I know at the party in conversation. The subject of Elon Musk came up, partially because the person hosting the party just purchased a Tesla. I recounted the production difficulties, Elon getting kicked off the board of his own company, and the quality control problems of Tesla which are well documented. Boy did I get an explanation from an alternative world.

I was told that Elon Musk was screwed by the big three automakers because they fear him. The reason his manufacturing plant is not producing enough units (cars) is as follows:

This person told me that he knows for a fact that the company that sold the manufacturing robots to Tesla purposely sabotaged the equipment, so it would not work. He claimed that Tesla hired a South Korean company to rewrite the robot’s software and that the manufacturing problems have been resolved. He assured me that Tesla is exceeding its manufacturing goals and is really making money hand over fist.

I asked about the Wall Street Journal article and others stating that most cars were defective and required repairs, before they could be sold. Also, that Tesla is not making enough units to be profitable. He told me that this too is due to the Detroit automakers controlling the media because they spend so much on advertising that they have arranged it so that Tesla only gets bad and untrue reports in the popular media.

At this point, I’m thinking this guy is channeling Preston Tucker.

Preston Tucker

I asked about our friend’s car. “Yeah he likes it,” I was told, “It did have a defective paint job, but they fixed it right away and now everything is great.”

I commented that there is not enough infrastructure to make Tesla the car of the future. His spin was that Tesla’s will be people’s second car i.e. commuter car and everyone will own one.

He then brought up the subject of self-driving cars. I was promised that self-driving cars would be widely available in five years. The commuter lanes would be only for self-driving cars and they would be computer controlled and drive 120 miles per hour and be four inches from the car in front of them. They would be like impromptu trains that speed up and down the freeways (think NASCAR on steroids.)

I was assured that in five years it would be commonplace to see vehicles with no drivers or passengers zipping around the highways and byways of America (Think Jetsons meets Bladerunner.) I asked about the many wrecks of self-driving cars and was told that once again it was just bad public relations. I was assured that every Tesla crash was driver error even when autopilot was engaged. He assured me that other companies have technology far beyond what Tesla is using and they are ready to deploy it now.

My comment was that humans are better drivers and that you can’t have a mixture of humans and robot piloted vehicles on the same roadway. He laughed and said the computers were far safer drivers and stopped just short of saying that we would all have to surrender our driver’s licenses. He just said that the next generation will not even have a license because computers will be driving everything real soon.

So, there you have it. Cue Rod Serling’s voiceover because the way that conversation went, I think one of us was “in the Zone…”

 

Rod Serling welcoming us to the Twilight Zone

 

Feinstein Deserves Payback

Senator Dianne Feinstein deserves some payback for her 11th hour stunt to try to derail the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. Nationally, she has done what the Republican Party has failed to do since the election of President Trump, energized the base.

The 2018 midterms are now less than five weeks away and, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, Republican voters have caught up with Democrats in viewing the election as “very important.” In July, the same poll registered a 10-point enthusiasm gap, and while Democrats and Republicans are both more juiced to vote, Democrats now lead by a 2-point margin, 82 percent to 80 percent. The pollsters cite the contentious Senate hearings over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and the sexual assault allegations against him.

Poll: Republicans have caught up with Democrats in voter enthusiasm amid the Kavanaugh saga

The Senate is now statistically out of reach for Democrats and their hopes of taking the House of Representatives are fading. This is due to Senator Feinstein’s fight to be relevant enough to win re-election in California.

Feinstein’s contribution to undermining her Party nationally and raising the prospects of the GOP is just not enough for me. I want my pound of her flesh also. Sadly, as a California resident, I’m stuck with a Democrat Senator no matter what; but I do have a choice in November. I can choose to vote against her and replace her with a newbie that has no seniority and no experience. I can thus throw Feinstein out of political office for the remainder of her miserably life and diminish the influence of California on a national stage as well.

Her opponent is arguably worse than she is but his ability to do as much damage to the Republic will be less in the short term. Thus I ask that you join me in holding your noses and voting for her opponent whoever in the hell he is. Think of this as Operation Chaos II.

Those of us that believe in the Second Amendment and that Life is worth protecting will advance both issues by being rid of this advocate of evil.

Musk Out at Tesla…Well Sort of

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued the following edict:

Elon Musk has been forced to step down from the Board of Tesla but he will remain CEO. Translation, he is figurehead of the company but can be out voted if he wants to do stupid stuff.

Within 45 days, an independent chairman will replace Musk, who will be ineligible for reelection for the next three years. Tesla will also be required to appoint two new independent directors to its board, in addition to putting into place controls to oversee Musk’s communication.

Tesla’s Elon Musk, SEC settle fraud charges

Is Musk really that out of control or does he want to be off the Board when the company financially implodes?

Sacramento Utility Flips off the Middle Class

As a homeowner in Sacramento County, I live in an area “served” by the “Sacramento Municipal Utility District” (SMUD). This is our local monopoly providing electricity to well you guessed it, Sacramento and a couple surrounding areas. What we have here is a government created monopoly, if you live in SMUD’s service area you must be hooked up to a SMUD electric meter and receive a bill from them each month. Just to be fair, SMUD does have pretty low rates compared to the other major electric providers here in California, and I’ve never had any service related issues in my three years owning my house.

 

Now to the point of my article, every month in your billing statement you get a couple small fliers (usually 1/3 of a page) stating they are filing for a rate change. This flier is written in such legalese that no common man can reasonably ascertain what is being said, so as a result you wait for a commercial or some sort of article saying what is happening to rates. Newsflash, they never go down. Similar to your credit card company, when they claim the reward benefits are getting better for you, do not buy it. In this case SMUD got very creative, saying peak rates will increase (5-8pm) and all other rates will decrease. What is happening here is rates will go down for the seniors, the stay at home mom’s, and for folks who telecommute or work from home. Every other group gets absolutely soaked under this new plan. Oh, if you didn’t read that little flyer, rest assured, under the new rates, the electric rate you will be charged between 5 to 8 PM triples from what you were paying!

 

Think about it, when do you do your cooking? Dishes? Laundry? Watch the latest series of Survivor…yep all between 5-8 pm. So, your bill is going to go literally up in flames. As far as the discount, well when you are working what electricity is being used while you are away? Your fridge? That’s fair, but your other appliances are either off or EnergyStar ® certified so likely not using much if any power.

 

The bottom line here is this type of government rule (I know utilities aren’t government but are governed by Public Utility Commission) have created a monopoly and really took away choice from the consumer. I am going to use a perfect example of what allowing competition does. I do not watch much television anymore, but when I do, I’m usually inundated with insurance company advertisements. I mean literally you could see 10-15 commercials per hour for these products. I kid you not: the Lizard, the ditsy brunette, the discount double check, the quirky professor, Esurance, the Liberty, Liberty, Liberty company, and Dennis Johnson hawking Allstate. However as much as I loathe the ads, that’s one heck of a lot of consumer choice right there. This way if a company loses its way; price, service or product quality, you are free to go and send them a message via your wallet. This is not true with our government created utilities that eliminate competition. The utilities have full control over you and the rates, case in point? The only way you can refuse service from them is not paying a bill and having power shut off, and to restart service you will be paying a large fee and back penalties with interest.

Review: Glenn Kaiser

About the time that my website went belly-up, I had just returned from seeing Glenn Kaiser in concert at a church in Modesto. I know Facebook gets a bad rap about conservative censorship, but thankfully Glenn is not on their radar (nor that he should be). I learned of the concert thru an ad on FB less than a week before the event.

Facebook Concert ad

After getting home from work on the appointed day, I loaded up the wife & son and headed to the concert.

 

The concert was advertised as free. In my experience, a “free concert” means that they pass the hat and give the proceeds to the performer. Assuming that was the case, I took some extra cash with me. One of the reasons that I mention this is that I never, ever carry cash with me. The second is that they never took up a collection. Not before, during, or after. There was a merchandise table after it was over but no cost, direct or indirect. I was shocked.

 

The concert was advertised as the doors opening at 6 PM and starting at 7. The seating was first come, first serve. We arrived from Elk Grove about 6:30. Because of our late arrival, I expected to be seated in the back third of the church. We were greeted by two people at the door and then hit the restrooms. After regrouping, we entered the church. Now this church was a “mega-church” by any standard and could seat close to 1,000 folks at a time. I was shocked that we were able to walk up to the front row and grab some seats. We asked the people around us just to make sure the seats we not taken. I was amazed yet again.

Glenn Started off doing a solo while playing the harmonica at the same time. I’ve never seen that done before. He then grabbed an instrument and played a few more songs. Then a band joined him. He never introduced them, so I don’t know if they were local musicians or came with him from Chicago.

Glenn Kaiser starts his concert with solo while playing harmonica

Glenn played a variety of instruments, several of which he made himself. This added a sense of authenticity that you will rarely see. Glenn has a history of doing rock music in the 1970’s thru 90’s but he gradually has shifted to play blues, and he has the vocal range to do it.

Cigar Box Guitar–perfect for the blues

His most well know instrument is a three-string cigar box guitar. He sells these on his website.

Cigar Box Guitars for Sale

 

Kaiser also played a handball racket.

Glenn playing handball racket made into single stringed instrument

He explained that the people who originated the blues utilized any type of wire that they could fashion into an instrument because they could not afford to buy a premade one. Guitars such as his, washboards, bottles and many other things were converted to instruments.

Following the concert which was really good, Glenn stayed around for photos and to visit with folks. Some knew him from his days with Resurrection Band while others from more recent times. This man is the real deal.

 

I said hello and introduced him to my wife and son. I took the opportunity to thank him for a kindness that he did for me back in 1983 after I was robbed at gunpoint in Chicago. He personally saw to it that I got a ride back to the base (Great Lakes Navy Training Center) at the end of a concert that he was involved in.

 

Glenn Kaiser Official Website

Degenerate Bozo Hillary Clinton Reappears

Is it just me or are the Clinton’s and their “ilk” like the stink you get when you don’t shower for a couple weeks? You know it just doesn’t go away? Because that’s what her merry group of degenerates have turned into. Earlier it was Jimmy Carter, they unfroze him to parade around regarding a special election in Georgia…no word on if Carter appeared in Georgia USA, or Georgia near Russia, but I digress. Then it was Carville, he hasn’t been relevant since he played Judge Doom in who framed Roger Rabbit! Oh wait, that wasn’t him? Well have you seen Carville and Doom in the same room ever? I rest my case! Maybe Hillary should have heeded his advice: It’s the economy stupid! And don’t forget about healthcare…instead she forgot about the deplorable. No word on if Carville considers himself a deplorable…he looks like one for sure.

However I digress, this blog is about Hillary and once again like that stinkin’ that doesn’t go away, she reared her very ugly face Wednesday regarding Judge Kavanaugh, saying “people need to take each of these situations on their own merits” and “their should be due process for everyone involved.” Puke! Oh wait now it makes sense Kavanaugh was nominated by a Republican, and all white males have raped women regardless of how great the witnesses are. Heck take Joy Behar (D-Really retarded) word for it.

No I think I would rather take Juanita Broderick’s word for it, since she accused William Jefferson Clinton of rape and was shot down by Hillary. Check out these tweets, Broderick literally body bagged Hillary Wednesday.

“She grabbed ahold of my arm… and she says with this very angry look on her face… ‘do you understand everything that you do?’,” Broaddrick said. “At that moment, I felt she knew [about the alleged rape] and she was telling me to keep quiet.”

Then Paula Jones, another Clinton accuser came in from the top rope!

“It’s really unbelievable if [Hillary] said all women have a right to be heard… Why not me, Kathleen [Willey] and Juanita?” Jones asked.

The Chief doesn’t even have to have any hot takes this blog is already on fire….someone call the ambulance! Tell them bring body bags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One more time, hit them with some pure genius Carville:

James Carville dismissed Jones by saying that anyone would seek litigation if “you drag a $100 bill through a trailer park” — and how that sentiment was shared among Democrats.

Oh my goodness, white hot take from someone so ugly Barnum and Baily’s Circus won’t hire him! Frankly anyone seen animal crackers lately, Barnum and Bailey even let the animals out of the cage he is so ugly! Remember Obama banned cruel and unusual punishment! By the way Carville just to correct you, its not called a double wide if you park your old rusted-out pickup next to your single wide! In fact if I drug a $100 bill threw a trailer park I would likely catch your wife…trying to get away from you!!!!!!

Back to Hillary..I’m glad you have come full circle and want to hear women accused of rape, actually The Chief agrees, all women should have their story heard. Unless of course it is trash as brought forward by this idiot professor who I won’t even name. These actions also “allegedly” happened 30 years ago, so even if it did happen the statute of limitations is up. And why won’t she testify, everyone knows teachers and professors and far superior to the unwashed masses? Because it never happened. This is Hail Mary thrown up by a desperate politician who has seen poll numbers tighten going into this upcoming election. Congrats on getting re-elected Feinstein, I guess you want to finish your time on earth working against Trump.

PS why haven’t we heard form Paul Begala lately? Is he the latest Clinton associate to “commit suicide?”

PSS is there anyone else who believes me regarding this meme about Ruth Bader Ginsberg?

Cornered Witch Becomes Huntress

Imagine that you’re a veteran politician who thinks the world revolves around you. You have used your political position to enrich your family to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. You champion an issue that you can’t ever win because it’s a right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, but you oppose it anyway with ever fiber of your being. You believe that the best way to help the poor is to eliminate them from ever being born. You are running for re-election and things have not gone as you had hoped. Your own party endorsed your opponent and the once friendly media was more than glad to report that you had a spy from a foreign country on your payroll for over 20 years.

Give the above, what do you do to save yourself? Why shift the blame, change the narrative, or as we used to say in the Navy, “Deny everything and make counter accusations”.

What Diane Feinstein chose to do is create a media circus where she is the star and someone else gets thrown under the bus. Cue music because our sacrificial victim this political season is Brett Kavanaugh.

Democratic leaders and their liberal aides, along with professional agitators, are all intermingled and conspiring together to achieve the same objective — in this case, to spike the confirmation of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Hill Republicans claim Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein engineered the kneecapping of Kavanaugh from both inside and outside Congress — and they have a strong case, though Feinstein insists she merely dealt cards she was handed.

For starters, they argue that Feinstein, who is the top Democrat on the Senate committee vetting Kavanaugh, orchestrated an “11th-hour ambush” of the conservative nod by withholding a letter from the committee’s Republican majority alleging sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh until the day the panel was preparing to take a vote to confirm him — almost two months after receiving the letter and well after the vetting and hearing process.

But one thing is for sure: Feinstein and her former aide’s fingerprints are all over the smearing of Kavanaugh — and that’s an ironic shame, given that Feinstein was swept into Congress as a reaction to the then-Democratic Senate’s mishandling of the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas sex allegations. The San Francisco-based senator has made her own missteps some 25 years later.

How Feinstein is conspiring to destroy Kavanaugh

Senator Feinstein has decided that this political witch hunt is best lead by a witch dedicated to drowning her victims in the Washington Swamp the she loves so well. From what I hear about San Francisco, both cities have an abundance of excrement which they are happy to export.

Kavanaugh seems like a decent guy but Feinstein’s path to six more years in the Swamp is over his mangled and dead body. When you position yourself as the leading advocate for killing unborn children, what’s another corpse?

What We Do Here

Run to the Battle was a song by Steve Camp many years ago. To some extent, this is what we do here at Really Right.

Martin Luther famously said:

‘If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point?

We may not engage in every opportunity that we encounter, but overall, we try to make folks aware of what’s happening and what we think of it. Sometimes its like trying to grab a fist full of water. So much goes by without comment. Liberalism is a symptom of a spiritual disease that is toxic to everything it touches. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse the hearts of men. Giving men new hearts is God’s job, pointing out what folks without Him do is often what we do here.

Thanks, for reading us and being better informed.