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US army confirms Arlington cemetery worker ‘pushed aside’ by Trump staff
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/29/arlington-cemetery-altercation-trump-visit
Strongest official criticism yet over altercation with ex-president’s staff during photo op at military cemetery
Richard Luscombe and agency
Thu 29 Aug 2024 12.14 EDT
Last modified on Thu 29 Aug 2024 15.48 EDT
US army officials issued a strongly worded rebuke of Donald Trump’s campaign on Thursday as they confirmed a worker at Arlington national cemetery was “abruptly pushed aside” during an altercation with members of the former president’s staff.
The statement was the strongest official criticism yet of Trump’s controversial visit in which he gave a thumbs-up over graves as a photo opportunity and there was an alleged physical assault by two of his staffers on the army official. It came as outrage continued to mount from veterans and families of some of the service members buried there.
Adding to pressure on the election campaign of the Republican presidential nominee was the army’s revelation that Trump’s team was explicitly told in advance by a defense department official that taking photographs and video footage at the cemetery breached federal law.
The campaign ignored the warning and filmed anyway, sparking a confrontation, during the visit on Monday that one Democrat called “abhorrent and shameful”. And on Thursday the Trump campaign continued to aggressively insult the unnamed cemetery staff member caught up in the altercation, who was shoved when trying to enforce rules, after learning she had declined to press charges for fear of retribution from Trump’s supporters.
“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and [defense department] policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside,” the army statement said...........................................................................more.
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Good thread on exposing fake support of criminal trump.
A network of fake accounts are posing as young American women, posting pro-Trump content and disinformation, but they’re hiding behind, and manipulating, the images of European fashion influencers.
— Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) August 28, 2024
Our latest investigation at @Cen4infoRes. Details in this thread 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/hlaeCGzZ1M
This state calls itself the ‘most pro-life.’ But moms there keep dying.
Giving birth in Arkansas, especially its rural southeast, comes with more risk and less care. The challenges feel acute for someone like doula Hajime White.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/08/27/arkansas-maternal-mortality-rate-abortion-ban/
Traitor criminal trump and Putin's puppet giving thumbs up and a grin for the death of veterans who he calls "suckers and losers".
Nothing to see here. Just the tone-deaf draft dodger gleefully giving a thumbs-up at the graves of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.#WeirdandSAD pic.twitter.com/5tAn5KY58p
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) August 26, 2024
Holy shit, this veteran just called Trump’s thumbs up visit to the grave of a serviceman “disgraceful.”
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) August 27, 2024
Trump just finally lost the veteran community.
pic.twitter.com/uIyi5gBJpy
CNN: More than 200 Republican leaders just came out and endorsed Vice President Harris, including a highly-decorated retired four-star general who has never endorsed a presidential candidate before. They said ‘another four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic leadership, this time… pic.twitter.com/eyTSrzvxyz
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 27, 2024
More of Elon's free speech;
⚠️Nazi Klan meeting⚠️: Nazis organizing the lynchings and forced deportations of black people on 'X Space'‼️
— White Male Cope (@WhiteMaleCope) August 23, 2024
Is this the "Free Speech" Elon Musk is so proud of⁉️ pic.twitter.com/IS0BVOMDf3
Few more in the last few days, no drag queens, but here's another couple and a minister.
@GOP #NotADragQueen https://t.co/V9u29QTOsi
— Camry Diaz 🇺🇸 (@Dude19672231) August 26, 2024
— 𝐁𝐞𝐤𝐬 (@antifaoperative) August 26, 2024
Fox sports reporter and anchor Matthew “Matt” Vereen was arrested for having and distributing child porn. Guess Musk and the republicans didn't like it being shown. True though, just google it. Oh and by the way, wasn't any LBGTQs.
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Just locker room talk.
https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1828257114524909913
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Former Trump National Security Adviser HR McMaster explains on CNN why Trump bears some responsibility for the chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal pic.twitter.com/MiLRQ8uvyH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 27, 2024
Wow. Republican H.R. McMaster CONFIRMS Trump stalled critical military aid for Ukraine to try to get election dirt on President Biden.
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) August 27, 2024
He belongs in prison.
pic.twitter.com/Ajrxs4vZb9
Critics ask for probe after Texas raids homes of Latino campaign workers
gifted https://wapo.st/4dVGCgY
The action by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a darling of the far right and ally of former president Donald Trump, came in an area to be hotly contested in November.
6 min
By Arelis R. Hernández
August 26, 2024 at 4:26 p.m. EDT
SAN ANTONIO — One of the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organizations is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into a recent spate of state raids on the homes of Latino elected leaders, candidates and political operatives in South Texas.
State investigators tied to state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office executed search warrants last week at homes across three counties, as part of what Paxton said was a two-year investigation of alleged fraud and vote harvesting.
The Republican officeholder said in a statement that his office had “sufficient evidence” to confiscate cellphones, laptops and documents. Paxton’s office targeted a Democratic legislative candidate in a swing district important to state Republicans, her political consultant, campaign workers, a local mayor and a city council member in raids on their small-town homes.
Neither Paxton nor the Department of Justice responded to questions Monday.
“We did nothing wrong,” said Mary Ann Obregón, 80, the mayor of Dilley, Tex., and one of the workers who recalled being threatened with arrest if she didn’t hand over her cellphone. “That’s what’s eating at us. It is an insult.”
Obregón was one of four Latina women, three of whom were in their 70s and 80s, who said they were intimidated by the morning visits from armed investigators while they were still in their pajamas. Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old retired educator, and Inelda Rodriguez, 73, a Dilley City Council member, were forced to turn over their phones and laptops.
“It was horrible, gestapo-style,” said Martinez, who added that investigators spent three hours searching her drawers and garage during the raid. “I thought we lived in a free country, not Russia.”
In asking for the investigation by the Justice Department’s civil rights office, League of United Latin American Citizens President Roman Palomares accused the attorney general of using his office to “harass and intimidate” Latino leaders and organizations to suppress their vote in crucial district races. Three of the women targeted were longtime politically active volunteers who have spent years working to register Latino voters in their communities and are certified by the state to educate their neighbors on mail-in ballots, he said.
“This is point-blank voter intimidation,” he said during a Monday news conference surrounded by supporters and members of LULAC, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that has been dedicated to increasing Latino participation in elections for decades. The group previously has sued Paxton and the state, stopping the government from purging 95,000 Latinos from voter rolls.
No charges have been filed against those whose homes were raided.
Paxton, a darling of the far right and ally of former president Donald Trump who survived an impeachment by Texas lawmakers last year, has used his office to pursue a slew of investigations against perceived political enemies and entities who represent a threat to the goals of his deep-red political base. In pursuing election fraud cases — often targeting Hispanic and Black Texans — over the last decade, he has left a trail of dismissed charges, unrealized threats, lost court cases and ruined lives in his wake, critics say.
Judges in Texas have rebuffed Paxton’s recent efforts to depose and demand documents from faith-based nonprofits at the border including Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso-based Annunciation House, which he said have operated stash houses and facilitated illegal immigration through their aid work. Another judge rejected Paxton’s effort to shut down a Houston immigrant rights group after claiming it violated its nonprofit status by engaging in political work.
But Paxton’s supporters say he is properly using the powers of his office.
Cecilia Castellano, the Democratic Party nominee for a closely watched Texas House seat, was awakened at 6 a.m. on Tuesday when investigators rang her doorbell and pointed their flashlights through her darkened windows. She is running in a district that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican like Paxton, has vowed to flip, endorsing her GOP opponent, Don McLaughlin, the former Uvalde mayor. The investigation also targeted her political consultant, Manuel Medina, whose front door was broken down in one of the early-morning raids last week.
“My business and personal life are being attacked because I’m running this campaign,” said Castellano, a first-time candidate who owns a construction business with her husband. “I believe they are afraid they are not going to win this seat. To me, it’s a political stunt; they are trying to smear my name.”
House District 80 is a narrow, rural district that stretches from just south of San Antonio down to Laredo on the border. The state Republican Party has identified this seat as crucial to the governor’s frustrated goals to pass a school voucher bill unpopular with some rural districts of the state. The Democrat has already said her vote on the bill would be a no if she is elected.
Investigators did not tell Castellano why she was being targeted, but she later learned her name had been mentioned in a series of affidavits, first reported by the Texas Tribune, in a vote-harvesting investigation out of a neighboring county that began in 2022. The case was referred by the regional 81st judicial district attorney, a Republican, to Paxton’s office. The district attorney, Audrey Louis, did not respond to a request for comment.
In one of those affidavits, the investigator with the attorney general’s office alleges that campaign workers in Frio County may have conspired to coerce or influence voters using mail-in ballots, filled out or helped fill out those ballots illegally, and taken them to the post office without appropriate disclosures, according to a copy of one affidavit obtained by The Post.
Whatever the outcome of that separate investigation, Castellano and the others said they have nothing to do with it. Her concern is the impact the raids will have on the voters she has spent months getting to know and encouraged to go to the polls.
“I stand ready to fight and not be deterred by political interference. It isn’t even about Democrat or Republican,” she said Monday. “It’s about democracy, right and wrong.”
LULAC Texas state director Gabriel Rosales said the events of the last week are personal to him because he has close relationships with families of those whose homes were searched and said he may be next on Paxton’s target list.
Martinez, he said, was made to stand outside in front of her neighbors for 30 minutes in a nightgown as officers took her calendar with all her listed medical appointments. Obregón had just been released from the hospital and was recovering from a bout of covid-19. She needed to call her doctor to confirm prescriptions when her phone was confiscated, he said. None of those whose homes were raided have been able to get their phones back.
“We’re going to fight back and get more of our people to the polls,” Rosales vowed. “The pathway to justice and equality is at the ballot box.”
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Yes, Trump had the worst jobs record of any modern president
https://i-know-how-much-you-care.ghost.io/yes-trump-had-the-worst-jobs-record-of-any-modern-president/
Jason Sattler
Aug 26, 2024 — 3 min read
And Biden/Harris has the best record for both jobs and labor. It's bizarre this just doesn't get mentioned.
The fact checkers have tied themselves into Gummy Pretzels to try to disprove a fact that Bill Clinton noted in his speech at the DNC, “Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. I swear I checked this three times, even I couldn’t believe it. What’s the score? Democrats 50, Republicans 1.”
Their best rejoinders are, “What about Reagan?!” or “You can’t blame Trump for the pandemic he did nothing to prevent and everything to make worse!”
Ok, let’s give Republicans the 16 million jobs created under Reagan and the 6.4 million created under Trump before helped drive us into our homes to Zoom our aunts and watch Tiger King for two years, and you’re still at about:
Democrats 50, Republicans 23.4 million.
Still more two-to-one. A responsible parent would still invoke the T-ball mercy rule.
You can claim that presidents don’t directly create jobs, and this entire metric is shady. That’s like saying, “The coach doesn’t win the game!” Sure, that’s technically accurate. But why else did you hire the coach? And you’d blame the coach if he lost or the president if the country lost a ton of jobs, the same way Fox blames the president if the Saudis hike gas prices or a non-white person commits a mass shooting.
Donald Trump doesn’t get blamed for his horrendous jobs record for numerous reasons. Psychologically, as Melissa Ryan noted, we long for our last normal week and have blocked out as much as 2020 and 2021 as possible. There’s no coordinated left-leaning media that functions as a nonstop Super PAC attacking Trump. And even if there were, his never-ending “Gish Gallop” of lies, dog whistles, and cognitive irresponsibility make it challenging to focus on any single aspect of his horribleness.
But the most pernicious argument is that everything was all good before 2020, and Trump bumbled us into the worst pandemic of the century with the worst response in the world. As Josh Bivens at EPI noted in October 2020 that ignores the harm Trump did as the first president of this century to enter office without a recession to manage:
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration was squandering the pockets of strength in the American economy it had inherited.
Broad-based prosperity requires strength on the supply, demand, and distributive sides of the economy, and Trump administration policies were either weak or outright damaging on these fronts.
Demand: Most of the Trump tax cuts went to already-rich corporations and households, who tend to save rather than spend most of any extra dollar they’re given.
Supply: Business investment plummeted under the Trump administration, despite their lavishing tax cuts on corporate business.
Distribution: The Trump administration undercut labor standards and rules that can buttress workers’ bargaining power.
As bad as Trump was on jobs, he was even worse on workers.
The litany of attacks he leveled at labor in the country has largely been swept away like the memories of hunting neighbors for their toilet paper. And his Supreme Court picks, with their Gilded Age antipathy for workers’ rights, will be doing damage to our families and paychecks for generations.
In contrast, the Biden/Harris administration has been the best at creating jobs in modern American history, a story that seldom gets told anywhere but on Biden’s social media accounts.
A chart showing average number of jobs created per month by President.
Even more importantly, Biden/Harris has been the best since FDR at doing something everyone agrees the executive branch has the power and prerogative to do: Expanding worker power.
The combination of elevating workers while taking on the abuses of concentrated corporate power, which is at the core of what we should call The Quiet New Deal, had led us to the best job market of our lifetime and worried capital so much that they were trying to engineer an ouster of Joe Biden of the ticket that would have pushed Kamala Harris off the ticket as well. That’s how good they’ve been for workers.
We’ve got the best administration for jobs and workers versus the worst president for jobs and workers ever.
Put whatever asterisk you need on that. Just be sure to point it out.
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Criminal trump's best people again.
Trump clemency recipient’s arrest draws attention of judge in old drug case
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/26/trump-clemency-recipient-jonathan-braun-judge.html
Published Mon, Aug 26 20241:50 PM EDTUpdated 12 Min Ago
Dan Mangan@_DanMangan
Key Points
A New York federal judge ordered U.S. probation officials to investigate the recent arrest of a convicted drug dealer who was released from prison in early 2021 after his 10-year sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump.
The order raises the possibility that the drug dealer, Jonathan Braun, could be sent back to prison for his federal marijuana-related conviction because of his arrest last week in Nassau County, New York, for allegedly assaulting his wife and father-in-law.
It also raises the prospect that Braun could become an issue in the 2024 presidential election, where Trump is trying to paint Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, as soft on crime.
A New York federal judge has ordered U.S. probation officials to investigate the recent arrest of a convicted drug dealer who was released from prison in early 2021 when his 10-year sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump.
The order raises the possibility that the drug dealer, Jonathan Braun, could be sent back to prison for his federal marijuana-related conviction because of his arrest last week in Nassau County, New York, for allegedly assaulting his wife and father-in-law.
It also raises the prospect that Braun could become an issue in the 2024 presidential election, where Trump is trying to paint Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, as soft on crime.
Braun, a 41-year-old who has also worked in the predatory lending industry, remains on supervised release for his conviction in Brooklyn federal court for conspiracy to import marijuana and commit money laundering.
“Probation shall continue to investigate this matter and apprise the Court of your findings and appropriate recommendations shall be offered at that time,” Brooklyn federal court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto wrote in an order docketed in Braun’s drug case, following news reports that Braun had been arrested on state charges in Nassau County.
The document containing the judge’s order is sealed from public view.
When CNBC asked Braun’s lawyer Marc Fernich about Matsumoto’s order, the attorney ignored the question.
Instead, he said in an email to CNBC, “Mr. Braun was arrested in Nassau County in connection with an alleged domestic disturbance.”
“He was released on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty and will address the allegations judicially,” Fernich said.
John Marzulli, a spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office that prosecuted Braun in the drug case, declined to comment on the order.
Braun had served more than five years in prison when his sentence was commuted by Trump commuted that sentence on Jan. 20, 2021, on Trump’s last day in the White House. Braun then walked free from prison as a result of that clemency.
He was arraigned last week in Nassau County District Court on assault charges. Prosecutors say he assaulted his 75-year-old father-in-law last Tuesday by punching him twice in the face as the older man was trying to protect his daughter, Braun’s wife, from him. Braun also is accused of physically assaulting his wife on July 17 and on Aug. 12.
He also is charged with petit larceny for failing to pay $160 in bridge tolls while driving a Lamborghini and Ferrari, both of which lack license plates, over about 40 different crossings.
Braun was freed without bail over the objections of the Nassau County District Attorney’s office, which asked a judge to set bond at $35,000.
A spokeswoman for Trump’s presidential campaign last week said, “President Trump wants criminals to spend time behind bars” when asked about Braun’s recent arrest.
A Manhattan federal court judge in February fined Braun $20 million in a civil case where the Federal Trade Commission had sued him for predatory lending practices.
“The evidence ... shows that Mr. Braun not only personally participated in this illegal conduct, but did so gleefully, with little remorse,” Judge Jed Rakoff wrote in that ruling, citing emails Braun had sent.
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Pretty much most people are getting bored with criminal trump's clown act, even his cult.
Kamala just put this video out and it’s brutal. 😂
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) August 24, 2024
pic.twitter.com/JXiYnJu3nr
Who really owns X, who is Musk influencing for? Elon Musk is a national security threat and needs to be brought down permanently.
Elon Musk was forced to reveal who financed his purchase of Twitter.
— Anastasiya1451 (@Anastasiya1451A) August 24, 2024
Amongst owners of Twitter there are two Russian oligarchs who are close to Putin and we're sanctioned over the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Petr Aven and Vadim Moshkovich.https://t.co/ZRojCKZzv4
His statements are aging really well. lol
Yeah, so about that… 🤷🏽 pic.twitter.com/vmDuCvoo9e
— Veterans For Responsible Leadership (@VetsForRL) August 23, 2024
Foo Fighters To Donate Royalties To Kamala Harris After Trump Illegally Used Song I wonder if @FooDGrohl and @foofighters know that Trump is using their music at his rally in Arizona? Did the Trump campaign license this music? pic.twitter.com/jH0RBTow0k
https://www.politicususa.com/2024/08/24/foo-fighters-trump.html
Trump used the Foo Fighters song “My Hero” without permission so the band will be donating any royalties to the Harris campaign.
Here was Trump’s unauthorized use of the song:
A Foo Fighters spokesperson had a quick response:
“Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were, they would not have granted it,” a spokesperson tells Billboard of the unauthorized usage. Furthermore, “appropriate actions are being taken” against the campaign, the spokesperson continues, and any royalties received as a result of this usage will be donated to the Harris/Walz campaign.
Artists have had many different responses to Trump’s theft of their work.
Beyonce went with the standard cease and desist letter. The estate of Isaac Hayes is suing Trump for potentially millions of dollars for hundreds of illegal uses. Neil Young allowed Tim Walz to use Rockin’ In The Free World at the Democratic convention after suing Trump for his illegal use of the song.
These songs are the livelihood of these artists, and artists have been dealing with Trump’s intellectual property theft on the campaign trail for almost a decade.
Campaigns are just like everyone else. They either have to get permission or pay to license a song, and the license request can be rejected by the copyright holder.
The Foo Fighters are making it hurt for Trump by giving any fees that come from Trump’s unauthorized use of the song to Kamala Harris.
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Anybody know why he was even talking about it? Definitely creepy. How in the hell was this subject supporting criminal rapist trump or politically appealing, was he blaming the cause on democrats, or "wokeness", blaming it all on vaccines, what? Definitely creepy, but not really wrong, about the earlier puberty for girls and boys that is, with girls showing it more, over the last 100 years or so.
Evolution with human puberty probably has been happening for longer, but this issue has gone faster past evolutionary reasoning. Many studies on it, they have a hard time pinpointing the causes, but the dramatic lowering of puberty age (different studies give 3 months to a year for every decade that passes) correlate to starting with the Industrial Revolution that manifested into the Age of Oil (didn't really get started until early 1900's and heavy use of ICE), and then into the Green Revolution or Third Agriculture Revolution using large quantities of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and mismanaged water for irrigation. Climate crisis, environmental abuse, and the America's health system and prenatal care (worst of all developed richest countries), along with republican's culture wars and war on covid mitigation all come into play on the timing connection. But that is a whole other discussion.
Don't know about whatever he's blaming it on or why he was even talking about it at a political rally for trump. Maybe he was defending and giving excuse for trump's obsession and sexual abuse with teen girls and young women. Maybe the group of republicans and religious leader voters who are by far the majority of all the child molesters (proven statistical fact) that go by the mantra of "old enough to bleed, old enough to breed" and put that 13 yr old boy in the mines way of thinking would be energized by it. Don't really care to go listen to the whole thing, but absolutely weird and dangerously creepy anywhere but a medical or scientific setting, parental research or discussion, not from a guy with a worm in his head supporting a criminal rapist who's only reason to run is to stay out of jail and continue to degrade the GOP down to the the bottom of the gutter for his own purposes.
My daughter suffered from what the doctors called Precocious Puberty, had really large breasts at the age of 10, wife at the time had to customize the closest bra sizing we could get. Created a very problematic decade back then. School, dealing with the public, was a very big issue and quite taxing to say the least to get through. Went to the pokey one time for putting a guy into the hospital, almost killing him, caught him talking to my young daughter some the way similar to that little snippet of Kennedy's weirdness, but a whole lot more. After many legal and other expenses, I got through it as just protection of my daughter's well being. Turns out, the guy was already a convicted child molester and they found evidence on him and at his residence with personal belongings of a sexually assaulted and murdered child.
Long story short, after the guy got out of the hospital he ended up being charged and convicted which put him in prison, then shortly after went back into the prison hospital, then a bit later went back into the prison general population and then got stabbed and sent to the morgue. I would have rather seen him not dead, but continually going into the hospital, but just glad I was at the right place at the right time doing my part in putting him there.
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This is hilarious, turn sound on for full effect.
Happy weekend, Comrade Kamala team! pic.twitter.com/VOBK6JPmDR
— American Muckrakers (@AmericanMuck) August 24, 2024
Why is Chairman Comer blocking probes into Trump's cozy relationship with China's "Smart, brilliant, everything perfect" President?
— Oversight Committee Democrats (@OversightDems) August 23, 2024
Trump pocketed at least $5.5 million from the Chinese government WHILE he was President. What other illegality is Comer helping him hide? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/LzNIfrsWrO
Very intelligent kid, going to go far if given the opportunity.
This guy @KnowaWasTaken is too damn smart for a 12-year-old. pic.twitter.com/rUOQrKOX39
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) August 23, 2024
On the final night of the DNC, @MSNBC was #1 in total viewers and #1 in the key demo across 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) August 23, 2024
During VP Harris' speech, 6.8+ million Americans turned to MSNBC. Last night was our most-watched DNC night ever.
Thank you to our loyal viewers.
RFK Jr.'s voters aren't going to let him worm his way out of this race, they couldn't bear it.
TheRealThelmaJohnson@TheRealThelmaJ1
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Bill Clinton and the wide gap in job gains by presidential party
gifted https://wapo.st/4dTJw5T
Speaking at the Democratic convention, Bill Clinton suggested that the partisan “score” on job creation since the Cold War was 50 million to 1 million. It is.
Column by Philip Bump
August 22, 2024 at 9:01 a.m. EDT
Former president Bill Clinton, speaking during the third night of the Democratic convention on Wednesday, presented a bit of data meant to promote his party — and, indirectly, his period in office.
“You’re going to have a hard time believing this, but so help me, I triple-checked it,” Clinton began. “Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. I swear I checked this three times. Even I couldn’t believe it. What’s the score? Democrats 50, Republicans one.”
That is: 50 million jobs added under Democratic presidents and 1 million under Republicans.
“One,” Clinton continued. After referring to vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz’s past job as a high school football coach, Clinton spiked the ball. “But even the most limited of us in what we know about football, or any other sport, knows that if you’ve got 50 and the other side’s got one, you’re ahead.”
This is one measure, obviously selected for effect. But Clinton’s not wrong.
There have been six presidents since 1989, three from each party. Under the three Democrats — Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — there was a cumulative increase of 50 million more people working between the starts of their terms and the ends. Under the three Republicans — George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump — the cumulative total was, in fact, only 1 million. (That’s starting at the beginning of the elder Bush’s term, not the fall of the Berlin Wall a few months later that marked the start of the Cold War’s demise.)
There is an avalanche of caveats that apply here, certainly. One is that “increase in people working” is not fully equivalent to “jobs created,” nor is it necessarily a measure of the policies or administration of the presidents.
It’s also the case that both George W. Bush and Trump saw calamities during their presidencies that significantly reduced employment: the recession under Bush and the coronavirus pandemic under Trump. But you can also see how this brings us back to the uncertainties just mentioned. Could the job loss during those events have been more limited under different presidents?
If we extend the point backward a bit further, to the end of World War II, the difference is still striking. Each party has had seven presidents since that time, with 88 million jobs added under Democrats and 32 million under Republicans.
Take out the post-Cold War period and you see that the distinction is more modest: 38 million under Democrats to 31 under Republicans. There is, however, still a distinction.
Of course, these presidents also had different durations in office. John F. Kennedy wasn’t in office as long as his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower. So it would make sense if the country added fewer jobs during his administration. (As it turns out, it didn’t, but you get the point.)
If we adjust employment increases by months in office, we still see a difference — particularly since George H.W. Bush in 1989.
Again, more caveats can be sprinkled over all of this. Job growth under Biden was increased to some extent because employers were getting back up to speed after layoffs at the outset of the pandemic, for example.
So what happens if we take just the middle two years of Trump’s and Biden’s terms and compare them? That eliminates the covid effects for Trump and the boost at the outset for Biden. It also gives a year during which their policies could be expected to have had an effect.
In 2018 and 2019, under Trump, the country added 4.3 million jobs. In 2022 and 2023, under Biden, it added 7.5 million jobs.
You don’t have to be a sports whiz to see that seven puts you ahead of four, either.
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US Shale Oil to Accelerate Production on Efficiencies, BNEF Says
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-22/us-shale-oil-to-accelerate-production-on-efficiencies-bnef-says?
BNEF US oil output estimates for 2025 are higher than the EIA
By Kevin Crowley
August 22, 2024 at 8:00 AM MDT
US oil production will grow by 600,000 barrels a day in 2025, about 50% more than this year, due to higher well productivity, according to BloombergNEF.
Shale producers are pumping more oil per dollar invested in oil fields by drilling wells with fewer rigs and using better fracking techniques, BloombergNEF said in a report published Thursday. The US will increase production 4.5% to a record 13.9 million barrels a day next year.
BNEF’s forecast is more bullish than the 13.7 million barrels a day estimated by the US Energy Information Administration.
“Efficiency gains, process improvements and adapting best field practices have allowed oil companies to reduce capital spending while avoiding a decline in well completions,” BNEF analyst Tai Liu said in the report.
Higher US shale production comes as oil prices have dropped 17% from this year’s high in April due to lower-than-expected demand, especially from China. It’s another headache for OPEC and its allies who are considering bringing 500,000 barrels a day of curtailed supply back to the market in the fourth quarter.
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NEW: Former President Trump recently mused that he might impose even higher tariffs than earlier proposed.
— Peterson Institute (@PIIE) August 22, 2024
A 20% across-the-board tariff + 60% tariff on China would cost a typical US household more than $2,600 a year, up from the $1,700 if it was 10%. #PIIECharts pic.twitter.com/VzQfxvy6dr
Loan Shark Freed by Trump Charged With Punching Wife, 75-Year-Old Father-in-Law
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-21/loan-shark-trump-freed-charged-with-punching-wife-75-year-old-father-in-law?
Jon Braun arrested in New York for domestic violence incident
Also accused of evading $160 in tolls in Lamborghini, Ferrari
By Zeke Faux and Zachary R Mider
August 21, 2024 at 3:47 PM MDT
Jonathan Braun, the loan shark freed from prison by former President Donald Trump, was arrested on charges of punching his wife and his 75-year-old father-in-law.
Braun, 41, was arrested Tuesday at his home in Atlantic Beach, New York, after he punched the in-law in the head, causing “substantial pain,” according to a felony complaint filed by Nassau County police in state district court. The police also charged Braun with assaulting his wife on two occasions, and with evading $160 in bridge tolls by removing license plates from a Ferrari and a Lamborghini he drove, court records show.
Braun pleaded not guilty on Wednesday and was released pending an Aug. 29 court appearance, court records show. Braun “will address the allegations judicially,” his lawyer, Marc Fernich, said in an email.
Trump’s commutation of Braun’s sentence in 2021 drew widespread attention. Clemency is generally reserved for those who can make the case they have reformed or have been imprisoned too long. Braun had served just two and a half years of a decade-long sentence for running a marijuana-smuggling ring. At the time, he was facing separate investigations by US and New York authorities into his lending business, where he was known for ripping off small businesses and threatening them with violence.
Braun’s court appearance came on the same day that Trump, campaigning to recapture the presidency, promoted his “crime and safety” agenda at an event in Michigan. “We’re going to stop violent crime in the United States,” the former president said. “I will deliver law, order, safety and peace, and I will protect those who protect us.” The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
After Braun’s marijuana sentence was commuted by Trump, he returned to predatory lending, Bloomberg reported in 2022. He’d long been a prolific lender, charging interest rates that topped 500% annualized and collecting tens of millions of dollars in payments. In June 2020, seven months before the Trump commutation, Braun was sued by New York’s attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission over the loans.
“These modern-day loan sharks not only preyed on hardworking business owners with fake loans, but threatened violence and kidnapping,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said of Braun and his associates at the time. Braun was found liable in both the New York and FTC cases, ordered to pay large fines and barred from the lending industry.
Braun was part of a wave of more than 100 pardons and commutations by Trump in his final hours in office. Associates of Braun say he’s bragged about paying millions of dollars to Trump-connected intermediaries to secure clemency, Bloomberg reported. The New York Times reported in 2023 that Braun’s family tried to use a connection to Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to get Trump to consider clemency.
Braun’s aggressiveness made him terrifying to those in hock to him. Some said in court filings and in interviews that he would threaten to beat them or harm their families.
“You don’t know who you’re f—-ing dealing with. We can get you wherever we want,” he told one borrower, who started carrying a gun, court papers say. “We know where you live,” he said to another. “We’ll go after your family.”
— With assistance from Chris Dolmetsch
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What do you expect from a purchased bride, got to pay to even be seen with her, but that doesn't buy the love especially when it isn't there to buy. So hands off for the demented old guy.
We don't talk enough about the fact that Donald Trump has pretended to be married to Melania for years and pays his "wife" for public appearances. pic.twitter.com/U6Du1WREEA
— TheRealThelmaJohnson (@TheRealThelmaJ1) August 21, 2024
Remember when Obama roasted donOLD trump and everybody was laughing at him?
That was awesome. lol
Not breaking news;
Vladimir Putin manipulated Donald Trump’s ‘ego and insecurities’, book says
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/21/trump-putin-hr-mcmaster-memoir
Former US national security adviser HR McMaster claims Russian president had a hold over Trump in new memoir
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Wed 21 Aug 2024 10.19 EDT
Last modified on Wed 21 Aug 2024 11.02 EDT
According to Nick Manes, a reporter and journalist in Detroit, "The #Trump campaign had initially agreed that Trump would participate in an interview with The Detroit News. But after the newspaper began asking about the #Michigan crime data ... the presidential candidate no longer had time for an interview."
Trump returns to Michigan to talk crime, but data shows rates dropped after he left office
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2024/08/20/donald-trump-howell-michigan-crime-campaign-speech-kamala-harris-illegal-immigration/74844154007/
Craig Mauger The Detroit News
Howell — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump campaigned Tuesday in Michigan, arguing there is a "crime wave" going on at levels “nobody has ever seen before," but Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows the national violent crime rate dropped in the two years after he left the White House.
With 77 days until the Nov. 5 election, Trump's event marked the former president's sixth trip to Michigan of the year and came as the Democratic National Convention plays out in Chicago. Inside a Livingston County Sheriff's Office facility in Howell, Trump spoke for about 50 minutes, with a group of sheriffs standing behind him and under a banner that read, "Make America safe again."
"The amount of crime that we have is unbelievable," Trump said at one point Tuesday.
Trump labeled the trends that he believes are happening the "Kamala crime wave," referring to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the current vice president. Trump also claimed, without any evidence, that crime is dropping in other countries because they are sending their criminals to the United States.
In big cities "almost all run by Democrats," Trump said, "you can't walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot. You get mugged. You get raped. You get whatever it may be."
Former President Donald Trump was flanked by several Michigan sheriffs at a campaign event Tuesday at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell. The Republican presidential nominee claimed the nation is experiencing a "crime wave," despite Federal Bureau of Investigation data that shows the national violent crime rate dropped in the two years after he left the White House.
National violent crime data from the FBI showed the rate of violent crime decreased from 2017 to 2019 during the Trump administration before jumping in 2020 to 398.5 incidents per 100,000 people. In 2021 and 2022, the first two years of President Joe Biden's administration, the nation's violent crime rate dropped, hitting 380.7 in 2022, according to the FBI data.
However, the Trump campaign said Tuesday the federal data was "totally unreliable at the present time" because the FBI arrived at the statistics by using "estimated crime numbers" for law enforcement agencies that didn't report numbers.
Data tracked by the Michigan State Police, covering through 2022, showed violent crime increased 12% in Michigan from 2019 to 2020, the last full year of Trump's term in the White House. There were 48,674 violent crimes in Michigan in 2020, according to the numbers.
Then incidents of violent crime rose about 1% to 49,073 during 2021, the first year of Biden's term, before dropping in 2022 about 7% to 45,449, according to the MSP data.
During the five-year period of 2018-22, murder in Michigan peaked in 2020 at 760 incidents before dropping in 2021 and 2022, the two years of the Biden administration for which there are numbers. Incidents of robbery and rape have generally been decreasing since 2018, the second year of Trump's term.
The Michigan State Police data showed the violent crime rate — the number of violent crime incidents per 100,000 residents — was the same in 2022, the second year of the Biden administration, as it was in 2018, the second year of the Trump administration: 452.9.
Crime data from the Michigan State Police tracks incidents from 2018 through 2022.
Data for 2023 will be available this fall, state police spokeswoman Shanon Banner said.
The Trump campaign had initially agreed that Trump would participate in an interview with The Detroit News on Tuesday. But after the newspaper began asking about the Michigan crime data before the event, a campaign aide said the presidential candidate no longer had time for an interview after the speech.
'Telling a story'
To combat crime, Trump said Tuesday that he would support law enforcement and deport illegal immigrants who break the law.
"We're going to stop violent crime in the United States," the Republican candidate said at one point.
But in a Tuesday interview, Michigan state Rep. Tyrone Carter, a Detroit Democrat and a former Wayne County sheriff deputy, said crime has declined in Michigan during Biden's term in the White House. He also touted programs advanced by Michigan Democrats to address crime, including a $75 million public safety trust fund in the state's most recent budget.
“Facts don’t matter when it comes to him,” Carter said of Trump. “It’s about telling a story that benefits you.”
During a press conference Tuesday for the Harris campaign, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said her office relies heavily on the Michigan State Police numbers.
“One of the things that he could do to reduce crime is stop committing so many of them,” said Nessel, referring to multiple criminal allegations pending against the former president and his May conviction in New York for his role in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment.
More:Trump muses his auto industry rhetoric 'is probably why I get shot at'
But Michigan House Minority Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said independent voters in Michigan care intensely about illegal immigration.
Asked if crime is up or down in Michigan, Hall replied, "We believe crime is a serious problem in our state. ... I look at the polling. It's not just illegal immigration and illegal immigrant crime, but public safety is an issue."
Trump's campaign event Tuesday featured a recurring slide in the background that said a 2023 Gallup poll found 63% of Americans said crime was an "extremely" or "very" serious issue in 2023.
In a Detroit News-WDIV-TV poll of 600 likely Michigan voters in July, crime didn't register as a top issue in the presidential race. Participants were asked an open-ended question about "the single most important issue that will influence" how they will vote. Crime, or any subject like it, wasn't among the top 10 responses, according to the poll.
Speaking to the crowd on Tuesday, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers of White Lake Township said the discussion about "real victims" is missing from the political debate.
"They want to give you statistics," Rogers said. "I am telling you, there are real victims."
Rogers mentioned a number of incidents, including a minor being assaulted by an illegal immigrant and two other assaults in Oakland County.
About crime data
The national FBI statistics paint an incomplete picture of crime in America since about a third of the nation's 18,000 police departments are not providing crime statistics to the FBI following a change in reporting requirements in 2021, according to the Marshall Project.
This has left a data dearth in New York City, Los Angeles and other cities that criminologists said will make it difficult to analyze crime trends and understand the place of Detroit and other cities in the national landscape.
But in Michigan's largest city, Detroit, homicides dropped from 302 in 2016, the year Trump was elected, to a low point of 261 in 2018 before rising to 273 in 2019 and spiking to 324 murders in 2020, Trump's last year in office, according to numbers previously released by the Detroit Police Department.
Since then, while Biden has been president and Harris has been vice president, annual homicides in Detroit have dropped to their lowest level in over 50 years. In 2023, Detroit had 252 homicides, a 22% decrease since 2020, according to Detroit Police Department statistics.
More:Detroit records 252 homicides in 2023, lowest since 1966
In the past, some law enforcement officials have tied 2020's increase in violent crime to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, James Craig, the then-Detroit police chief and a Trump supporter, said drug and alcohol use during the pandemic "fueled the violence."
"COVID was the primary factor behind these numbers," Craig said in 2021. "The pandemic is having a direct impact on the rise in violence in Detroit and other cities."
To back up its arguments, the Trump campaign has shared data covering the increase in violent crime in 2021 and said Michigan's violent crime rate was above the national average.
Trump zeroes in on migrant crime
Michigan is expected to be among a handful of states that decide whether Trump or Harris controls the White House this fall.
Trump is the only Republican presidential nominee since 1988 to carry Michigan. He won against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by less than 1 percentage point, 47.5%-47.3%, or about 10,700 votes. But four years later, in 2020, Trump lost to Biden by 3 percentage points 48%-51%.
The Republican nominee has made crime and illegal immigration two of the focuses of his third White House campaign in Michigan.
Former President Donald Trump holds up a chart showing illegal immigrant crossings at the southern border while speaking at a campaign event Tuesday inside a Livingston County Sheriff’s Office garage in Howell. The Republican nominee has made crime and illegal immigration two of the focuses of his third White House campaign in Michigan.
During an event in Grand Rapids in April, Trump spoke in front of a group of Michigan sheriffs. He said a spike in crossings at the southern border was "country changing" and defended his use of the word "animals" to describe illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes.
Trump's running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, held a press conference with law enforcement officials on Aug. 7 in Shelby Township. After that event, James Tignanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan and a Trump supporter, said he wasn't certain whether crimes committed by illegal immigrants had risen in Michigan because a person's immigration status wasn't always part of law enforcement's screening process.
Trump referenced the story of Joel Quintana-Dominguez, who was charged in Macomb County on July 19 with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a victim under age 13, which carries up to life in prison if he’s convicted. Shelby Township Police Sgt. Kevin Bailey previously told The Detroit News the investigation into Quintana-Dominguez started July 15, when relatives of the 32-year-old claimed he’d sexually abused a family member.
Detectives believe Joel Quintana-Dominguez may have been alerted that police considered him a suspect and prepared to flee the country. Quintana-Dominguez was twice deported to Mexico but returned both times, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
"Customs determined that he was here illegally, that he had been deported before but found his way back in," Bailey said.
Trump said he would close the southern border and "get all of the bad ones out."
"We're going to get it done fast," Trump said.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
Staff Writers Beth LeBlanc contributed.
.
New Yorker been coming out with some pretty good ones. That one was great.
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Not sure how far it will go, but at least the effort is there. Wasn't anything done with his other traitorous involvements. Traitor flynn is still running around free attacking and doing his damage to democracy and our taxes are paying him to do it.
NEW: We've filed a request with @StateDept & @TheJusticeDept to investigate @realDonaldTrump for violations of the Logan Act by negotiating with PM Netanyahu on behalf of the US. That is illegal and got @GenFlynn in a heap of trouble. pic.twitter.com/SE3UKnV4lo
— American Muckrakers (@AmericanMuck) August 20, 2024
We know that is exactly criminal donOLD trump's MO, he's showed it already. It's all he's got, nothing but a bunch of poop. Still murdering as many as he can in broad daylight. If he thinks it can help him, their is no limit in destruction of lives.
Am I the only one who caught this last night at the #DNC? pic.twitter.com/eiSghREKyw
— David Carroll 🦣 (@profcarroll) August 20, 2024
Having a hard decision. lol
On a serious note, after #RFKJr2024 reportedly attempted to solicite a cabinet position from @KamalaHarris, and rightly got turned down, it might not be such a hot idea to do this.
— Mario Nicolais (@MarioNicolaiEsq) August 20, 2024
Ya know, cause it is illegal. https://t.co/tbojn1nI8M pic.twitter.com/qpx8fmicAA
How Food Companies’ Massive Profits Are Making Your Groceries More Expensive
https://time.com/6269366/food-company-profits-make-groceries-expensive/
April 6, 2023 4:24 PM EDT
It’s been more than a year since the U.S. launched its battle against high inflation. Yet, nearly every grocery item still costs more than it did in the past.
A bag of potato chips that could have been purchased for $5.36 last year will cost you $6.17 today. A dozen eggs that used to cost $2.01 now sets you back $4.21. A pound of butter went from $3.77 to $4.87.
Across the country, the high grocery prices have crunched budgets for essential food items. But at the same time, some of the largest food corporations are raking in profits. Experts say those profits are helping to make your groceries even more expensive.
“Follow the money, and the story is clear,” Robert Reich, the former US. Labor Secretary, tweeted last week. “Food corporations are using inflation as cover to jack up prices.”
READ MORE: Here’s Why So Many Grocery Store Staples Are So Expensive Right Now
On Tuesday, Conagra Brands—one of the largest consumer packaged goods companies in the U.S.—announced that it had posted a nearly 60% year-over-year profit increase between December 2022 and February 2023. The Chicago-based company, which makes a long list of grocery staples including Chef Boyardee, Hunt’s, Slim Jim, Reddi-wip, and Marie Callender’s frozen meals, reported a net income of $342 million, up from $219 million in the same quarter a year prior.
Conagra attributed the rise in quarterly profits to inflationary price increases, despite facing more impactful supply chain disruptions than anticipated. Sean Connolly, Conagra chief executive, said on the earnings call with shareholders that the company’s sales growth was “primarily driven by inflation justified price increases” and a willingness by consumers to pay the higher prices. Conagra did not respond to a request for comment.
Connolly added that “while these inflation cycles are painful for manufacturers to go through to a degree, sometimes they’re actually quite good for you because they become a catalyst for getting your pricing right.”
Conagra Brands, which makes Slim Jim, Reddi-wip, and Marie Callender's frozen meals, is only the latest food company to post big profitsLon Tweeten–TIME
Conagra isn’t the only food company making profits off of inflation-driven price increases. At Kraft-Heinz, the multinational food company that makes Oscar Mayer, Jell-O, and Kool Aid, profits for the quarter ending at the end of 2022 were up nearly 450%, compared to the prior year, at $887 million. Tyson Foods, the largest meat company in the U.S., more than doubled its profits between the first quarters of 2021 and 2022. And General Mills, which owns Kix, Trix, and Chex among other recognizable cereal labels, saw its fourth quarter profits last year rise 97% compared to the previous quarter. General Mills has raised prices five times since 2021 and indicated last month that another price hike could be coming soon. (Profits fell for both Tyson and General Mills in the most recent quarter, however.)
Over the last year, the price of food eaten at home has soared more than 10%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with some items spiking even higher. Cereals and bakery goods are up 14.6% from a year ago, closely followed by dairy and nonalcoholic beverages, which have both risen 12.3%. The other major grocery store food groups—meats and fresh produce—are up 6.8% and 5.4%, respectively. Prices increases have slowed in recent months, but show no signs of going back to pre-pandemic levels.
The trend shows that the packaged food industry is benefitting from passing the price increases along to American consumers. And as more food companies are reaping the rewards of higher profit, it could result in your grocery prices staying at these inflation-driven levels for longer, says Chris Becker, a senior economist at Groundwork Collaborative, which promotes left-leaning economic policies.
READ MORE: U.S. Food Prices Are Up. Are the Food Corporations to Blame for Taking Advantage?’
“When shareholders see that other corporations are getting away with high pricing, they start wanting to get in on it,” he says. “So other corporations then raise prices to deliver profit margins.”
In other industries, like electronics and home furnishing, consumers are likely to cut back on spending if prices are too high. But that hasn’t been as big a concern among food industry executives, Becker says, since people will always need to spend on groceries in order to live.
“Food companies are taking advantage of this very precarious moment,” says Irit Tamir, Director of Oxfam America’s private sector department, which seeks to fight inequality to end poverty and injustice. “They are hiding behind a very good story of the pandemic, inflation, and the Ukraine war to say that they need to raise prices, but they are actually just creating a smash and grab for profit, exploiting and exacerbating inflation.”
And it’s not just packaged food manufacturers that are experiencing a recent profit boom thanks to rising prices, says Joe Maxwell, the president of Farm Action, a nonprofit that campaigns against corporate influence in the farm industry. Some food producers and suppliers are also reaping the same rewards.
Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer in the U.S., reported that its revenue doubled and profit surged 718% last quarter because of higher egg prices. The company, which controls about 20% of the U.S. egg market, said its average selling price for a dozen eggs in the quarter ending Feb. 25 was $3.30, more than double the average of $1.61 a year earlier.
READ MORE: Your Egg Prices Could Be So High Because of Price Gouging, Farm Group Says
The company has pointed to decreased egg supply nationwide due to avian flu as the reason for higher prices and record sales. The avian flu, which is tearing through poultry farms across the U.S., wiped out some 58 million birds in the last year. But Farm Action believes that there’s another culprit: price gouging. In a January letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the organization alleged that Cal-Maine Foods is engaging in “a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits.”
Maxwell, who was the last Democratic Lt. Governor of Missouri, says that the food and agriculture industries have become so concentrated into a few large companies that there’s no longer an incentive to gain market share by competing on price. “The market dynamics do not work,” he says. “Today a primary cause of food inflation in this country is the market concentration that allows for price gouging.”
RELATED: 15 Expert Tips on How to Save Money on Grocery Shopping
Democratic lawmakers Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Katie Porter called out Cal-Maine and other major egg producers for more transparency into their profitability. “American families working to put food on the table deserve to know whether the increased prices they are paying for eggs represent a legitimate response to reduced supply or out-of-control corporate greed,” they wrote in a letter in February.
“Companies have admitted that they are raising prices not because of costs, but because they can,” Tamir says. “They are essentially hiding behind a lot of these excuses as a way to gouge consumers.”
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Reuters reveals that the Rockbridge Network co-founded by JD Vance has a 2024 budget of approx $75 mil to influence the Nov electionhttps://t.co/5JgCd0LlXz
— Wendy Siegelman (@WendySiegelman) August 20, 2024
Here's my chart with Rockbridge co-founders Vance, Chris Buskirk, donors Thiel and Rebekah Mercerhttps://t.co/qombxufn8m