Loop North News

‘Uncut Gems’ is no diamond in the rough (Above) Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner in the 2019 film Uncut Gems. Film garbage such as this is emblematic of a bigger problem in our society. We’re selling legal drugs to people who don’t need them and encouraging lawlessness. The race to the bottom will stop only when we stop turning away and do something. By Howard Tullman 13-Jan-20 – This year’s Oscar buzz is beginning, and there’s a lot of complimentary commentary about Adam Sandler’s harsh and depressing performance in Uncut Gems. Sandler portrays a crooked businessman, gambling junkie, adulterer, and overall total asshole who careens from one crisis to another, mainly of his own making. For this he suffers a few humiliations, threats, and beatings, tossed in randomly to keep things tense – but not really interesting, since no one really cares about this creep anyway. The critics will tell you that it’s a must-see and I will tell you to save your money and not waste a couple of hours you’ll never get back on a story about a worthless guy, surrounded by equally vile characters, who not only deserves the grief he gets, but who is also a complete waste of oxygen. Apparently, he’s only alive because it’s against the law to kill even venal and useless people like him. The bigger question is why these actors and other “creatives” in Hollywood keep making these morally bankrupt and pointless films and why they think there’s a big audience for this kind of crap. When did it become a badge of honor (Fight Club?) for actors to sink as low as possible and degrade themselves – and the rest of us – with sick and depraved performances in a race to the bottom to see just how disgusting they could be? Honestly, if you don’t respect yourself and your so-called craft, why would you expect any of us to respect you? You must wonder why Sandler thinks there’s the slightest value or virtue in making a tired, low-budget beater like this about how sad and scummy life is in the jewelry district in New York City. The same marginally anti-Semitic tale has been told too many times to count. About all that’s left is a Claymation version, voiced by Adam and his SNL friends. What does he tell his own kids when he makes junk like this? And what should we tell ours? At least the people producing Billions and Succession understand that if you’re intent on making a buck producing financial porn, you better make it pretty. The Irishman is a moving story about fundamentally bad people, beautifully told and performed by artists who respect themselves and the characters they are representing. And it clearly shows. Uncut Gems is a sad and second-rate attempt, which respects no one and offers nothing to look at, unless it’s looking down on the few people trying to make an honest living, even though we’re never introduced to any of them. It’s all about the crooks, cheats, and criminals, with a few rappers and jocks thrown into the mix for diversity. They’re rendered just as stereotypically as the jewelers, with an extra special emphasis on bling, broads, and coke. Everything about this movie is about business as usual – making a buck regardless of who gets hurt in the process. And that’s the most frightening aspect of the whole thing. These films and the people who make them seek to blunt the outrage, normalize the bad behavior, and anesthetize the emotions and repulsion that you’d ordinarily expect from normal people exposed to the constant and wretched excess that is at the center (it has no heart) of this film. To make it even worse, the idiot critics and the Hollywood press can’t wait to celebrate the “success” of these kinds of salacious efforts. Wretchedness is not limited to the big screen. Characters all ‘equally worthless’ in Amazon Prime series Another sick saga is the two-season Amazon Prime series Fleabag – as if Amazon hasn’t done enough to trash our lives – which opens with a rousing session of anal sex and proceeds steadfastly downhill from there. This story of a sick and twisted, nameless woman who flatly states that she’s willing to have sex with anyone who will have her, is an English import and a “comedy” that nearly swept the 2019 Comedy Emmys, winning no less than four awards for writing, acting, and directing, and more recently won a bunch of Golden Globes. (Right) Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Fleabag. What could possibly be the point of making junk like this? Is she free, empowered, and inspirational in some warped sense? If so, it can only be in the Bobbie McGee sense: “freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” But just because these mopes may be winning awards and making money doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of losers around, including the rest of us who are painfully watching our culture crumble and our values corrode. No one wants to talk about the damage being done to our lives and our society by the calculated indifference and obliviousness of these people. They’re happy to talk about and celebrate the “work” they’ve done, but not about the damage they’ve caused. And, believe me, these kinds of issues and concerns aren’t limited to the entertainment business or the movers and shakers in the new digital economy. Films are symptoms of bigger social problems We see the same problems just about everywhere we look, and while we clearly see the growing harm, we don’t feel the need to say much of anything about it. It’s the same story we hear every week from the tech giants who claim that all technology is neutral, that their platforms are public commons, and that the problems with social media and election fraud aren’t their fault or responsibility. Or the old NRA trope that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Or how about the JUUL e-cigarette scam? While their grand mission is allegedly “to improve the lives of the world’s one billion adult smokers,” they’re doing a great job of making it quick and easy for millions of underage kids to get hooked on nicotine with their fruit-flavored vapes. And increasingly, across every city and community, the unforeseen and unexpected consequences of vaping, CBD, and legal marijuana are becoming clearer. In the name of technology and entrepreneurship, we continue to basically avoid responsibility and accountability for our actions and then, not surprisingly, bemoan the results. As we start the new year, we’re about to see another watershed moment. Too many of us are turning a blind eye to the likely outcomes while the media cheers the expunging of a bunch of ancient pot convictions. All these vaping, pot, and CBD “entrepreneurs” who are rushing – with the help of patronizing and apologetic politicians – to open stores and “clinics” in poor neighborhoods, selling stuff that the FDA doesn’t even understand, much less know how to describe and regulate, are anxious to be cut in on and join the gold rush. And they’re utterly indifferent to the obvious and expected impacts of their actions as they bring more poison to the poorest people in their communities. Keep in mind that because these drugs are still illegal under federal law, every sale is for cash – no credit cards allowed because banks won’t process the transactions. How’s that for assuring accountability and creating an added attraction for the crooks? A few folks will make some money and many will be deprived of medical supplies, robbed coming in and out of these joints (no pun intended), run over by stoned drivers, and displaced by dispensaries and bong stores right out of the ’60s. Are these really the new wave of businesses that we want to encourage minority entrepreneurs to build in their neighborhoods? When the dust settles and the smoke clears, we’re going to look back and rue the day that we did these folks the “favor” of bringing more drugs and dope into their communities in the name of entrepreneurship. Make your first mission for 2020 a simple one: When you see something, say something. Howard Tullman is General Managing Partner for G2T3V, LLC – Investors in Disruptive Innovators, and for Chicago High Tech Investors, LLC. He is also the author of You Can’t Win a Race With Your Mouth: And 299 Other Expert Tips from a Lifelong Entrepreneur. By Howard Tullman | Loop North News | h@g2t3v.com

SHELLY PALMER'S INNOVATION SUMMIT IN VEGAS AT CES

Embarc Collective, Tampa's newest startup space, opens first phase

Vinik-backed Embarc Collective, Tampa's newest startup space, opens first phase (Photos) Jan 7, 2020, 2:48pm EST Updated: Jan 7, 2020, 4:09pm EST

Lakshmi Shenoy is starting the new year with a new, long-awaited space for Embarc Collective.

The CEO, handpicked by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik in 2018, has spent 2019 working on choosing startups to mentor, securing partnerships with national organizations, creating an entrepreneur-focused coffee brand and teaming up with community organizations. Shenoy hails from Chicago, where she served as the vice president of strategy and business development at similar innovation hub, 1871.

And now the final piece of the puzzle for nonprofit Embarc Collective is falling into place: A roughly $10 million, 32,000-square-foot space is ready to open in downtown Tampa that will host events, a coffee shop and space for startups to grow.

“We have great people, we have great startups — I would argue we don’t have enough," she told the Tampa Bay Business Journal on Tuesday. "So, I would want to amplify what’s here and realize our potential. Our goal is to be a mechanism, an asset, that this community can use to get us where we want to go.”

The building will be in its soft opening phase throughout January, which will come to a head on Feb. 4 with a ribbon cutting and grand opening. A public open house will be held on Feb. 12.

The 100-year-old space has open collaboration tables, conference rooms, a nursing room, prayer room, quiet room, offices for a slew of startups that are Embarc Collective members and an events space that holds 250 people. There’s also Endeavr Coffee, the Blind Tiger-run coffee space within Embarc Collective.

The building is split with a 20,000-square-foot space and a 12,000-square-foot space intended for larger startups.

Kreher/Barna Design Studio and KWJ Architects, both based in Ybor City, led the architecture and design of the building and Creative Contractors did the build out.

Shenoy believes it will not only help the startups attract talent, but also place the region on a new platform to showcase the innovation occurring both within the buildings' walls and beyond.

“When [startups are] recruiting talent — the prospective hire can come in and see it’s not only the one company they’re interviewing with, but [there are] all these other companies [in the region],” Shenoy said. “It creates a visual density which is really powerful in amplifying what is happening in Tampa Bay. You can see it in one shot ... and for new and prospective customers and investors, this becomes their first impression of what’s happening in the Tampa startup environment,” she said. 

“They get to see it and they walk away telling their people, ‘There is something happening in Tampa Bay.'”

Lauren Coffey Reporter Tampa Bay Business Journal

LandscapeHub and Epicor Announce Intent to Form Strategic Alliance to Streamline Supply Chain of Nurseries, Retail Garden Centers, and Landscapers

LandscapeHub and Epicor Announce Intent to Form Strategic Alliance to Streamline Supply Chain of Nurseries, Retail Garden Centers, and Landscapers

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January 08, 2020 08:10 AM Eastern Standard Time

CHICAGO & AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LandscapeHub, the digital marketplace for the landscaping, nursery, and retail garden center industry, and Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, today announced they are working to form a strategic alliance to drive retail efficiency and business growth. With this agreement, retailers running Epicor retail solutions in nearly 8,000 locations can streamline their plant purchasing and selling through a seamless integration linking the two company’s systems.

“As an Epicor customer, this relationship will give me an easy way to access information across both systems to make my business and other garden center businesses more profitable and operate more efficiently”

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“LandscapeHub has created the industry’s first standardized plant database, which we expect to help our customers bridge the gap between landscape businesses and retail stores and take advantage of the digital supply chain. Our work and alliance with LandscapeHub are designed to allow Epicor retail customers to enhance their plant purchasing and selling processes and provides an added benefit to leverage the company’s plant and purchasing data,” said Sam Kirkland, strategic relationship manager from Epicor.

With the increasing popularity of its marketplace, thousands of landscape and nursery professionals across the country are turning to LandscapeHub to source, estimate and order plants and landscape materials from hundreds of available suppliers. Through a partnership with Epicor, LandscapeHub will be able to further expand its user base, and provide Epicor users with the convenience of being a part of a digital supply chain for green goods, driving greater supply chain visibility, better pricing for landscape retailers and faster procurement of goods and services.

“Professionals around the world have embraced Epicor to power the way they manage their businesses,” said Lisa Fiore, CEO and co-founder of LandscapeHub. “We are excited about and expect our partnership with Epicor will make it easier than ever to collaborate seamlessly across the two platforms, giving the nursery and landscape industry the ability to get more done.”

“As an Epicor customer, this relationship will give me an easy way to access information across both systems to make my business and other garden center businesses more profitable and operate more efficiently,” stated Brian Riddle, President, Homestead Gardens and proud Epicor customer for 40 years. “I’m looking forward to having the ability to access LandscapeHub’s plant database and ordering capabilities from within my Epicor solution.”

Working together, Epicor and LandscapeHub expect to produce powerful market insights to benefit their shared user base and retail industry. The parties expect their integration availability plans will be released later in 2020.

About LandscapeHub, Inc.

LandscapeHub is streamlining the procurement process in the green industry. The Chicago-based technology company’s digital, wholesale marketplace connects landscape and nursery buyers with a network of trusted suppliers on one platform. To learn more, visit www.landscapehub.com.

About Epicor Software Corporation

Epicor Software Corporation drives business growth. We provide flexible, industry-specific software designed to fit the precise needs of our manufacturing, distribution, retail, and service industry customers. More than 45 years of experience with our customers’ unique business processes and operational requirements are built into every solution―in the cloud or on premises. With this deep understanding of your industry, Epicor solutions dramatically improve performance and profitability while easing complexity so you can focus on growth. For more information, connect with Epicor or visit www.epicor.com.

Loop North News College admissions scandal exposes our eroding values

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College admissions scandal exposes our eroding values (Above) Actress Lori Loughlin leaves a federal courthouse in Boston on August 27, 2019, after a hearing on charges in a nationwide college admissions cheating scheme (Reuters/Josh Reynolds). Cheating by Hollywood types on behalf of their tykes is becoming less about demanding honesty and more about creating social media attention for some of the young participants. By Howard Tullman 4-Jan-20 – I can’t really decide what we should make of the latest earth-shattering development in the Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal. I’m sure there is much wisdom to be extracted and many life lessons to be learned, but to me they aren’t readily apparent. This is due at least in part to the fact that it’s so hard to know whether to cheer or jeer – or perhaps do a little of both – at least as far as the students whose lives have been so abruptly upended. There is plenty of blame and shame to go around, for sure, but the kids really seem to have taken it in the shorts. Their folks may be going to jail, briefly, but their “educations” – or whatever remains to be salvaged of them – will be a joke for the rest of their lives. Maybe in Hollywood charisma matters much more than credentials. Maybe the kids didn’t really care that much about a diploma. But their parents clearly wanted it all, whatever the cost to their children. I have no sympathy for the scummy snowplow parents who cleared the path instead of merely helicoptering over the whole deal, and whose own goals and fragile egos are very much also in play here, whatever the unrealistic aspirations might have been that their kids may have actually had. It was never very clear from the published comments and videos whether some of these kids even wanted to go to college. We may never know how much the students themselves really knew about what was going on when they were dressing up, posing, and pretending to be jocks or whatever for the camera. After all, their folks are phonies for a living, so maybe lying and make-believe were just regular parts of their lives. When the dust finally settles and we look back on the whole deal, one key takeaway for me comes from the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen, as is so often the case. He sings in Long Time Comin’ that his fondest wish for his kids would be that “your mistakes will be your own, that your sins will be your own” and obviously not those of your parents. He knows very well that even legends and legacies can let you down if you’re not careful and let yourself get played. Frankly, you still must feel a little bad for these kids, who were merely the latest props and pawns in their parents’ competition with the rest of their crowd for bragging rights and some degree of offspring referential legitimacy. After all, if your kid got into some fancy school, how dumb an actor or salesman could you really be? If the kids’ best interests got lost in the mix, and their futures got trashed, well, there’s a lesson there for them as well. I suppose it’s just life in the big city. With parents like these, it’s not hard to understand how the kids are turning out. Still, at this unclear and uncertain juncture, you’ve also got to grudgingly admire anyone who gets thrown for such a loop and then picks themselves up, dusts themselves off, and carries on. And, lo and behold, here they come again. Like the Terminator, they’re back. One of Lori Loughlin’s daunting daughters, Olivia Jade Giannulli, has resurfaced, much to no one’s real surprise. She was summarily booted along with her sibling, Isabella Gianulli, from the University of Southern California amidst admissions bribery allegations lodged against her parents, which they have repeatedly denied. Olivia had suspended all her social media activity for many undoubtedly painful months, without, of course, taking down or closing her accounts. Now we have learned that she has tentatively returned to the fold, and to her faithful followers, along with the relieved and resurgent media, which was quick to launch its latest feeding frenzy. Her sister Bella, so far, not so much, but she can’t possibly be that far behind. Are we witnessing new heights of hubris and chutzpah? Dealing with heroines to be cheered or villainesses who should be roundly and regularly condemned? Or, as business builders who have all hit our own bumps in the road, should we, at a minimum, be acknowledging or, in fact, celebrating this latest Phoenix-like rise of a mini-celebrity – or two – from the ashes? After all, what does college really have to do with pushing pancake makeup and selling lip gloss? There’s a business to be attended to and bucks to be made, so let’s get it on. Olivia’s steadfast refusal to close all those cosmetic cases, turn off the video cameras, fold up her tents, and just skulk away is worth noting. Is this a truly impressive demonstration of dogged persistence and perseverance by a budding young entrepreneur who absolutely refuses to take no for an answer? Could be. And, of course, why would anyone want to take no as an answer, when it’s so clear and so easy to keep taking the dough? We live in the land of forever hopes, delusional dreams, and successive second chances, so why not? The Internet may never forget anything, but social media must have the shortest memory in memory. Early returns are encouraging. Olivia reported in her first video message – already viewed some five million times – that she felt an overpowering need to rejoin her 1.4 million followers online and to continue to educate and instruct her 1.9 million YouTube subscribers about all matters of beauty, exercise, diet, and such. The relief across the web was palpable and the joy immense. (Left) Olivia Jade describes her everyday makeup routine in a video uploaded to YouTube on December 17. So, she’s back in the saddle and, by all appearances, not much worse for the wear. Maybe Bernie Madoff will preside, and Elizabeth Holmes will give her away, at her soon-to-be-announced nuptials. Could happen. Never say never. But seriously, what do you tell people when they ask you about this? Your employees, your students, your kids? Is anyone even keeping score these days? Does cheating matter or is it just so much a part of our everyday lives that we take this behavior for granted or assume that everyone’s doing it? Is this new-found tolerance about forgiveness or second chances? And does everyone – however low, deceitful, and unapologetic – deserve and get a second chance? And finally, is it enough to just find it all disgusting or do we have a greater responsibility than that? You start to wonder why somebody doesn’t step up and do something about all this – and then you realize that you are somebody. Howard Tullman is General Managing Partner for G2T3V, LLC – Investors in Disruptive Innovators, and for Chicago High Tech Investors, LLC. He is also the author of You Can’t Win a Race With Your Mouth: And 299 Other Expert Tips from a Lifelong Entrepreneur. By Howard Tullman | Loop North News | h@g2t3v.com

A SYSTEM...

A SYSTEM THAT EXPECTS FAILURE DOESN'T TRY VERY HARD TO PRODUCE ANYTHING ELSE.

Wake-up Call

Join Me at The Money Show

Join me, Howard Tullman, at The MoneyShow Orlando!

Hi Investors and Traders,

I'm excited to be speaking at The MoneyShow Orlando, February 6-8, 2020!

During this three-day educational conference for self-directed investors and traders, attendees will receive real-time market and economic analysis, discover hundreds of specific buy/sell recommendations, learn how 150+ experts are adapting their strategies, test-drive new tools, and a lot more.

I encourage you to register now to secure your spot and join me at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate to learn how to position your portfolio for profits whether the markets go up, down, or sideways!

My Presentation Schedule: 

The Bumpy Road from Yesterday to Tomorrow

What It Takes to be a Successful Entrepreneur

The Present Has Never Been More Temporary

Additional Featured Speakers Include:

• Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Media
• Rick Rule, President and CEO, Sprott US Holdings
• Jeffrey Saut, Chief Investment Strategist, Capital Wealth Planning
• Christine Benz, Director of Personal Finance, Morningstar
• Keith Fitz-Gerald, Chief Investment Strategist, Money Map Press
• Howard Tullman, General Managing Partner, G2T3V, LLC
• Lindsey Bell, Chief Investment Strategist, Ally Invest
• Sam Stovall, Chief Investment Strategist, CFRA Research
• Tom Sosnoff, Founder and Co-CEO, tastytrade
• John Mousseau, President and CEO, Cumberland Advisors

Why You Should Attend:

• Get the Top Portfolio Picks for 2020: 150+ experts will share their most profitable picks for stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, commodities, alternative investments, and more.
• Learn the Best Investing & Trading Strategies: During 200+ sessions, you'll learn the strategies top money managers, market analysts, and trading specialists use to identify opportunities.
• Focus on the Topics That Interest You Most: There are seven in-depth tracks on topics including financial planning and retirement, precious metals and mining, income and growth picks, ETF strategies, cannabis investing, alternatives, and educating students.
• Test & Compare the Latest Tools: Take new products on a test drive, learn about the latest developments in the industry, and find the tools that will help take your investing and trading to the next level.
• Expand Your Network: Connect with savvy investors and traders from around the country during social activities and while enjoying complimentary drinks at the networking receptions. 

View the complete schedule to learn more about the 200+ keynote addresses, workshops, and special events at the 2020 MoneyShow Orlando, February 6-8, at the Omni Resort at ChampionsGate. I hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Howard Tullman
General Managing Partner
G2T3V, LLC

John Garrido for Judge