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s for Target JP Morgan downgraded its
rating of the retailer stock on Thursday
after its two decade losing streak and
it follows controversy over its LGBT
themed merchandise honoring pride month
which is celebrated in June every year
the bank is forecasting the new stock
price to plummet from 182 dollars down
to 144.
and Lego is now the latest company to
follow suit facing some backlash over
its LGBT plus friendly blocks
conservative consumers are in an uproar
after an influencer dug up a year old
Pride Campaign which he claims is an
effort by the toy maker to force
transgenderism on children in a now
deleted tweet Ollie London tweeted quote
children's toy maker Lego has released
an lgbtqi plus range featuring
transgender building sets for kids age 5
plus Lego described the new Range as a
colorful alphabet of identities and
definitions made from Lego bricks Lego
told the New York Post that London's
claims are false and that the sets were
created by Lego fans and were not
available for sale
I looked into this a little bit Jessica
and it looks like that Lego set with the
rainbow has an 18 plus label on it and
the other sets that were tweeted out by
Ollie
um were not available for sale so I
imagine that's why he deleted the tweet
that was not accurate but of course that
doesn't uh you know get rid of the fact
that Target apparently has this lgbtq
plus clothing line that is causing
boycotts of its stores across the
country
yeah it seems to me that this move by JP
Morgan Chase is it a self-profilling or
self-fulfilling prophecy to have
analysts say okay well like Target's
under some hot water right now there are
definitely going to be some people that
have said their boycotting Target maybe
this could affect the value of their
stock as well we didn't see a dip in
Target stock that was extremely dramatic
in the last 24 hours it was down like
point seven three percent trading uh so
is this analyst trying to project that
because there's controversy in the news
around Target that we do see the value
potentially going to go down is this
them using that news about Target in
people's reaction to them selling lgbtq
plus merchandise is that them saying oh
well it's going to go down but now this
downgrade is going to make folks say hey
okay now I'm not going to invest in
Target because they adjusted their
position to neutral but a lot of the
reporting around this is making it seem
like JP Morgan Chase is like we should
never buy Target stock which maybe is
political in itself for them to be doing
something like this right now perhaps I
would be surprised if JP Morgan is
backing can socially conservative
boycotts and we know that in Prior years
when conservatives try to boycott
companies like Nike their stock actually
went the opposite direction they ended
up being upgraded because there was a
backlash from the left-wing side who was
supporting for example the company
hiring Colin Kaepernick in this case
though within a few days of people
discovering the pride section at Target
in the kids area their market value
dropped by about nine billion dollars
and this is also on the heels of this
massive Bud Light boycott which is still
very much ongoing there are retailers
who sell Bud Light who are basically
giving cases away for free or at
significant rebates because people just
don't want to buy it I mean you can go
even to stores in Northern Virginia
which is a very liberal area and Bud
Light section completely full every
other beer completely sold out at least
that's what I saw over Memorial Day
weekend I was on the golf course with my
fiance and the cart girl all was
basically giving away Bud Light because
no one wanted it so I think JP Morgan's
downgrading of the Target stock is
probably more a recognition that these
conservative boycotts are actually
effective for the first time
historically conservatives were not good
at boycotting they kind of valued the
convenience of shopping at certain
companies or the product quality over
whether or not the company abided by
their moralistic values and now that's
kind of switched to the opposite
direction I think it's because so many
companies have adopted these Pride
campaigns that conservatives are kind of
sick of it they just want to shop
somewhere that's politically neutral
yeah I mean I wouldn't say a 0.73 so a
fraction of one percentage Point decline
in how Target stock was trading over the
past 24 hours signals that they should
reduce the price Target from 182 to 144.
I don't know if that's a signal that the
boycott has been effective and uh that
is why Target stock is being downgraded
I think this is political posturing from
JP Morgan Chase we have Jamie dimon who
recently said I want to be president I
just don't want to go through running
for president and he said in the past my
uh heart is Democrat but my brain is
Republican something along those lines I
want to get that right yeah my heart is
Democrat but my brain is Republican I'm
not sure what that means I don't know
where he falls on this issue but it does
seem to me like this is a dramatic
position from the analysts and we know
that folks who trade stock on Wall
Street have been able to manipulate
stock values because of their risky
Futures Trading uh and so it could be a
self-fulfilling prophecy intentionally
from them that we're going to downgrade
this stock as kind of a blowback for the
political position they're taking and
what they're doing as pride month
yeah we also have to consider that Jamie
dimon if even if he says he's a
republican at heart he's certainly
embraced environmental and social
governance policy he's embraced
diversity equity and inclusion policies
at JP Morgan so he's pretty on board
with the idea I think that companies
should be taking moralistic positions
and on political issues and trying to
advance social justice and all of these
other what we would I guess typically
call woke corporatist type ideas so I
just would find it really surprising if
he were doing this intentionally to
damage Target or to send some kind of
signal that he's on the side of the
boycotts
yeah I think uh I don't know at this
point how much our politics have changed
that was something he said back in 2019
uh who knows how he feels about the
wokman virus now I don't know what it
means for him to say my heart is uh
Democratic but or my brain is democratic
but my or my hardest Democratic brain is
Republican what does that mean is that
just I'm socially liberal but physically
conservative maybe maybe we have a lot
of folks in finance who who think that
way but to say he doesn't want to run
for president but he wants to be
president means that he wants to
influence what's going on in the country
which I think every single CEO believes
so this could just be coming from the
analysts and have absolutely nothing to
do with Jamie dimon Diamond entirely
this could just be the analyst saying
all right we don't like what's happening
with Target we're actually going to use
the news to make some projections about
what we see Happening Here beyond what
we've already seen in the market as
evidence for Target stocks actually
declining in the market it but I do
think uh such a a big firm like JP
Morgan Chase saying we're going to
downgrade the stock rating is something
that will influence the market more than
it is analysts predicting what's going
to happen in the market it could also be
Target's reaction to the boycotts that
cause this reaction from analysts
because there were a lot of closed-door
meetings apparently according to reports
where the Target CEO was trying to
defend the pride line but then agreed in
especially southern states to move the
line to the back of the stores or even
remove it entirely in some of these
places and he also was trying to say
that the reason that they were doing
this was not because of boycotts but
because of apparently threats to
employees and the idea that
conservatives were going to commit
violence against store employees of
Target which I thought was bizarre
because why would you attack somebody
who works there who obviously doesn't
have any marketing power or just
decisions in the advertising department
at Target and then we found out that
there were apparently bomb threats at
several Target stores but it was from
lgbtq plus supporters who were
apparently angry that Target had moved
the pride section to the back so I just
don't really buy targets reasoning for
moving the section I think they're
definitely listening to the money
they're understanding that the boycotts
were incredibly effective against Bud
Light they know that a lot of suburban
conservative women in particular shop at
their stores and now they're trying to
justify it to avoid angering both sides
I guess
yeah I think this move of like oh we're
not gonna get rid of it we're just gonna
put it in the back uh the two sides
compromise solution oftentimes makes
absolutely no one happy right right the
lgbtq plus Community is like why is it
in the back now but still the the
Suburban white women who love shopping
at Target are gonna be like hey why is
it still here it's really making no one
happy and so Walmart has taken a stance
and they said we're not removing the
pride merchandise from our store it's
staying and so I wonder what kind of
response we're gonna get from many folks
who shop at Walmart Walmart has become
the store that people depend upon in
this inflationary period their CEOs have
said we're Doug McMillan and people uh
who are close to Doug McMillan have said
that what we're experiencing is actually
an increase in our customer base during
this inflationary period and we hope to
see that continue kind of betting on
inflation because it's good because they
can offer low prices and then among
their loyal customer base has been
shopping at Walmart they're seeing
people shift more towards basic
necessities so people depend on Walmart
economically today day but can they
afford to boycott it I'm not sure right
and I think the boycott at Target was
fundamentally a little bit different
because I mean the corporations over the
past five years have always had Pride
collections they changed their logos on
Twitter they do this sort of social
justice posturing but what made targets
line different I think for a lot of
people was the fact that it was
basically targeting children and infants
and some of the items that were found in
the kids section contained tucking
underwear and chest binders that would
allow kids to basically present as a
member of the opposite sex if they
identify as transgender and that crossed
the line for a lot of people I don't
know if Walmart has similar products I
think if they do then a boycott is very
likely
yeah I'm not sure why anyone would be
upset by those products being sold at
Target if there are people who have a
use for those products or or want them
we have a free market right supply and
demand and if you don't want to shop at
a store simply because they're meeting
demand of a consumer that isn't you fine
shop at another store threatening the
employees is very extreme I think
projecting that Target is going to have
such a an extreme bully cost that we
need to downgrade their stock is also an
extreme reaction to what's going on here
there are all kinds of like baby onesies
uh for boys and the baby blue that say
like future heartbreaker like uh future
ladies man right all of these weird
things that sexualize literal infants
talking about what they'll be like when
they're older we don't see the same
reaction to that than like a rainbow
onesie I think there are transgender
people in our society there always will
be I think it's just an anti-social
position to say they shouldn't be
allowed to buy clothes that make them
feel good and allow them to express
their identity I think from the position
of civil liberties they should be
allowed to do whatever they want to do
well we're talking about kids though I
mean that's a fundamentally different
thing they're not able to consent to a
lot of the so-called treatments that the
medical community is pushing on them and
especially in the case of actually
marketing this material in a store the
reason that people have an issue with it
is because you're basically taking
children who are already in a vulnerable
state a lot of so-called transgender
children have comorbidities like
depression anxiety or even autism that
leads to gender dysphoria and they're in
a confused position a lot of them
Express the normal discomfort that
people would have with puberty and then
they have teachers corporations the
media telling them that something must
be wrong with them and they're born in
the wrong body and then to go through
irreversible procedures or take hormone
therapy so that's why people have an
issue with it because children can't
reasonably consent to going through the
process of a life-altering decision to
to live as a member of the opposite sex
and in the case of the chest binders and
the tucking underwear there have been
multiple cases where children who have
been using chest binders have been
unable to breathe because they wrap
themselves too tight they've been sent
to the school nurse with bruising on
their chest these are not just harmless
pieces of clothing this is indicative of
a larger social Trend where kids who are
struggling with mental health issues are
told that the Quick Fix to their
problems is to just become a member of
the opposite sex and I don't think it's
right for a company to normalize that
I don't think target is normalizing that
by selling them clothes that they can
pick out and they might want to wear I
think a lot of the depression and the
suicide and the health effects of stress
that we see very prevalent in the
transgender Community are because
they're growing up in a society that is
not accepting of them and in fact with
the whole faction of the political party
of the Republicans that has made
transgender people their target
especially transgender children that
reality I think has produced the
conditions where you see so many young
transgender people who are depressed and
who are thinking about suicide and are
who are disproportionately committing
suicide and are disproportionately the
targets of violence I think target
selling clothes that allow kids to talk
if they want to or Express a different
gender identity is not them imposing any
decision on the children it's simply
making the products available it's not
Target saying we support any kind of
medical procedure it's just them saying
we recognize that you exist and there's
a demand for these products so we're
going to sell them I don't think there's
anything wrong with that chest binders
giving kids bruises kids break their arm
playing soccer if they want to wear the
chest binder and maybe they get a bruise
because they did it too tight the next
time they wear it a little bit looser
and they learn that lesson I think kids
pursuing their identity when it comes to
gender shouldn't be seen as anything
different than kids pursuing their
identity by trying singing trying
playing soccer trying to figure out who
they are as a person it's a part of
their identity but I think it's seen as
taboo and strange because we've had such
strict gender roles for so long in this
country and change is uncomfortable but
if it makes people happy and it's how
they want to live their lives it's
something that I support and something I
think the government has no role in
trying to dictate one way or another
unfortunately we have to leave it there
I know we could keep going on about this
there were so many points I wanted to
respond to but we'll be back with more
Rising after this
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