Kim Cizerle

[Owen @Owennfa]

Toys R Us was profitable. Private equity bought it anyway, and 33,000 people lost their jobs with nothing.

In 2005, Bain Capital, KKR, and Vornado Realty Trust bought Toys R Us in a leveraged buyout for $6.6 billion.

Here's the part that gets skipped: the company itself was making money. It wasn't failing. It wasn't asking to be saved.

But in a leveraged buyout, the firms don't pay with their own money. They borrow against the company they're buying, and the debt becomes the company's problem, not theirs.

Toys R Us went from having almost no debt to carrying over $5 billion in loans it never asked for and never benefited from.

Every year after that, a huge share of the company's profit went straight to interest payments instead of stores, inventory, or staff. The stores got run down. Amazon and Walmart kept eating market share. Toys R Us couldn't invest its way out because there was nothing left after the debt.

In 2017 it filed for bankruptcy. In 2018 it liquidated completely.

33,000 employees lost their jobs. Store closures. No severance for most of them.

Giovanna De La Rosa worked there for years. She testified before Congress on November 19, 2019, describing what it meant to lose her income with nothing after decades of loyalty to a company that had been profitable the entire time she worked there.

The firms that bought it walked away having collected management fees for over a decade, regardless of outcome.

Here's the sentence that explains the entire model: the buyers cannot lose. The debt belongs to the company. The fees get collected either way.

They didn't buy a business to grow it.

They bought a business to extract from it, and left 33,000 people holding what was left.

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

Biden checks his watch at a ceremony and Fox does nonstop segments on it for weeks. But Trump falls asleep repeatedly at the 9/11 ceremony and they won’t even show it. But national broadcast news networks won’t show it either because that would be impolite.

[CSPAN @cspan]

"My father Michael Massaroli...you do my dad's legacy and the legacy of all these victims no honor by using this tragedy to spread hate. We have seen a medley of people come up today, of all races, all religions, all creeds and this tragedy is just that, it's a tragedy. I've had to grow up and spend the past 25 years seeing people use it to hate on our Muslim brothers and sisters, to hate on people who don't look like them. That's wrong. That does no honor to the victims here...please stop."

Full video here: https://t.co/nWIx9b9yGR

[Spectrum News NY1 @NY1]

The last speaker at the 9/11 remembrance ceremony lost his father Michael Massaroli to the attacks.

"You do my dad's legacy and the legacy of all these victims no honor by using this tragedy to spread hate," he said. "I've had to grow up and spend the past 25 years seeing people use it to hate on our Muslim brothers and sisters, to hate on people who don't look like them."

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

The following Republicans voted to block the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which gave 9/11 first responders access to critical care:

— Sen. Susan Collins
— Rep. Jim Jordan
— Rep. John Boozman
— Rep. Vern Buchanan
— Rep. Ken Calvert
— Sen. John Thune
— Rep. Shelley Moore Capito
— Rep. Cynthia Lummis
— Rep. John Carter
— Rep. Bill Cassidy
— Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart
— Rep. Virginia Foxx
— Rep. Sam Graves
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski
— Rep. Brett Guthrie
— Sen. Mitch McConnell
— Rep. Darrell Issa
— Rep. Robert Aderholt
— Sen. Mike Crapo
— Sen. Chuck Grassley
— Rep. Gus Bilirakis
— Rep. Marsha Blackburn
— Rep. Robert E. Latta
— Sen. James Risch
— Rep. Frank D. Lucas
— Rep. Michael McCaul
— Rep. Tom McClintock
— Rep. Jerry Moran
— Rep. Mike Rogers (AL)
— Rep. Harold Rogers
— Rep. Mike Rogers (MI)
— Rep. Steve Scalise
— Rep. Pete Sessions
— Rep. Michael K. Simpson
— Rep. Adrian Smith
— Rep. Glenn Thompson
— Rep. Michael R. Turner
— Rep. Joe Wilson
— Rep. Robert J. Wittman
— Sen. John Barrasso
— Sen. John Cornyn
— Sen. Roger Wicker

[champagne@lacjap @champagnel41689]

Ted Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada and has never had his citizenship questioned. Abdul El-Sayed was born in Detroit and Marco Rubio said he will be "investigating his immigration status". Marco Rubio has BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP. The hypocrisy is actually quite staggering

[Suzie rizzio @Suzierizzo1]

Yale University has found that the Medicare for all system would save at least 114,000 lives and reduce U.S healthcare costs by 1 trillion dollars a year annually.

[Tampa Bay Times @TB_Times]

Cubans living in Florida are being deported to Africa https://t.co/tsQapWdPg2

[Qasim Rashid, Esq. @QasimRashid]

Mega millionaires and billionaires are suing New York City over the pied-à-terre surcharge, which is a tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers who own second homes worth more than $5M. A tax that would fund programs for working people.

They are literally spending millions in legal fees so they don't have to pay slightly more in taxes on their SECOND HOMES THAT ARE WORTH MORE THAN $5M.

What happened to all the threats of leaving the city? Oh right, you were full of cyclosporiasis explosive diarrhea.

[Andy Kim @AndyKimNJ]

Trump is starting to give out tariff refunds:

Amazon - $600M
Apple - $2.2B
Ford - $1.3B
GM - $500M
Nike - $1B

Where are the refunds for the American families forced to pay more? You deserve your money back.
https://t.co/lItH3wBIsL

[Tim Hannan @TimHannan]

MAGA wanted to impeach Joe Biden over a $10,000 check from his brother but have no need to understand how Trump made a billion in crypto.

[MP Arizona☀️🏳️‍🌈💙🌵🐕🐕‍🦺🫂💦🏜🐟🌴🎙🌎🌻♍️🌊 @AzPetrich]

I just want to point out....

The amount of money the United States has spent on war in the last 67 days, is roughly the same cost that Bernie Sanders proposed for universal college. So the real question is never can we afford it, it's what we choose to prioritize.

[Ted Lieu @tedlieu]

I have a red line in determining which Democrat I will support for President. That person must commit to removing the stain of trump’s name from every single federal building, and kick it off with a grand public ceremony.

With fireworks.

You think I’m kidding. I’m not kidding.

[Micah Erfan @micah_erfan]

This is the best political ad I’ve ever seen.

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

Imagine calling Renee Good and Alex Pretti “domestic terrorists” and calling immigrants “animals” then turning around and telling people they need to “tone down their rhetoric.”

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

It is a broken Christianity that says “God protected him!” when a president survives and “thoughts and prayers” when school kids die.

A god who only protects the powerful and not the vulnerable is an idol.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: Virginia court REJECTS Republican lawsuit in challenging the legislature’s authority to alter the 2021 congressional map. A HUGE victory for our client the DCCC and the voters of Virginia. Another defeat for the GOP. https://t.co/vFY56Uiwxo

[Carolina Forward @ForwardCarolina]

With the nation's attention once again on partisan gerrymandering, it's a good day to point out once again that the Democrats in North Carolina have won outright majorities of votes cast for both chambers of our state legislature in multiple recent elections, including just in 2024.

Yet because of Republican partisan gerrymandering, the voters' preferences have been completely nullified each time.

Strange how there's been no conservative outrage about this, isn't it?

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

5 years ago, Democrats introduced a bill to ban gerrymandering in every state nationwide.

Every single Republican voted against it.

[Covie @covie_93]

So if grandmas are out here working for DoorDash who is suppose to help with child care??

Asking for jd vance.