Indeed. We don't even have to conjure up a bunch of "cigar-chomping capitalist swine in the boardroom" colluding on how to profit from others' misery. It's just common sense, or a bit of game theory that's surely at play: if they raise their prices, we can raise ours without a hitch. And then we can all raise them some more (Whee! that was fun!) because for certain commodities, consumers have no real choice: they need the staple products we're selling. And even producers of non-essential stuff can then jump on the bandwagon. I think the idea that robust competition will invariably serve as an "Invisible Hand" breaks down as soon as big-time players realize they can sidestep it and all make a boatload of money no matter what. There is such a thing as an unstated monopoly.
The entire problem is the existence of big-time players.
The lower you keep the maximum marketshare, the more competition there is. So set a reasonable limit, like 1% of market share. Above that forbid mergers and increase taxes.
Our Canuck grocery chain Loblaws recently tried to add onto their already exorbitant profits by reducing their discount on food that’s at expiration from 50% off to 30% off “for parity with their competitors”. The press and Canadians basically told them to go shit in their hand and call it ice cream. It’s back to 50% with bonus threat of being investigated for price collusion.
Another facet of the corporate tax regime is that wages and benefits come off the top on tax returns so, when corporate taxes are high, corporations have a choice of giving money to the government or giving it to their employees--thus the paternalism of the 50's and 60's was rooted in tax incentives rather than altruism. Notice when corporate taxes were lowered, wages stagnated and benefits like pensions and health care were cut back--not a coincidence that corporate profits went to shareholders then
The worst part is that the rich do a lot less pissing than the poor. So for every gallon of champagne you pour down their gullets, us poor people (i.e. anyone who owns less than one paid off home, however tiny) only get a few drops of piss. If you truly wanted the water to flow, you would give the champagne to the poor: They piss out 99%.
Just spit balling here, but maybe the Biden Administration could dust of those moldy old anti-trust statutes. I know his Administration is probably doing more enforcement than any Administration in decades, but it is still woefully not up to the level of market concentration that is present across most industries. Not sure if this falls under anti-trust, but there is also a lot of colluding going on within key industries, like food processing (particularly meat) and Administrations have the ability to litigate against that as well.
Already happening my man, check out other newsfeeds if your current ones are not covering it. When it comes to anti-trust I always trust Doctorow's writing, homepage at pluralistic.net though also found elsewhere.
Inflation is especially when there is even a slight shortage of goods and companies in non-monopoly lines find they do not have to compete on price and can follow the leader on price increases without actually colluding. In an industry or product line with only a few competitors it's even easier, without meeting in secret somewhere to divide the market. And obviously monopolies or near monopolies have no problem at all. It's take it or leave it since any competitor cannot ramp up production and quickly enough to put a dent in demand. And they are most likely to just match you anyway. There needs to be a windfall tax or some mechanism like states use for price gouging after a natural disaster. Because public displeasure will not rein it in and this report will likely fade out of the news by tomorrow morning. While the news media still reports inflation is terrible. Despite it being down by 2/3 in the last two years, at around 3.5% since last summer, and much of that due to corporate gouging.
Corporations have learned that inflation blame never sticks to them, the public always wants to blame the president. Like a president has a magic inflation lever.
There's a name for what corporations are doing. It's called price fixing and it used to be illegal. In the good old days before republicans completely captured our courts and much of our regulatory systems.
I keep desperately praying that the judgement from the fraud trial is so unfathomably massive and devastating that Prezinazi AntiChrist strokes out completely to the point that he can only move his eyeballs--and the Republinazi party nominates him anyway; they have to wheel him out on stage like Hannibal Lector. And then they're all wiped out in November BY VOTES, and he lives on incapacitated for another 20 years.
In response to grocery greedflation powered by retail industry concentration (I read somewhere that 80% of grocery distribution goes through just four companies), we’ve switched to shopping Aldi and local stores. Aldi can be occasionally frustrating because they don’t always stock everything and the local stores may not be cheaper but fuck those other guys.
Went to a US Aldi for the first time last week (just moved back from Germany). Prices were good, but I was irritated that they package many things in jumbo packs. For instance, you couldn’t buy one head of romaine lettuce, you had to buy a pack of 3. Which we won’t eat before it goes bad. And you couldn’t buy one package of ramen noodles; you had to buy a box of 12. Who has space for that? I get that it allows them to reduce margin, but it put me off.
Having lived in Germany where Aldi started, I wouldn’t exactly call them a mom-and-pop business. They are ubiquitous in Germany, and across much of Europe. I don’t know anything about their corporate policies, but I wouldn’t choose them based on them being home-grown.
I just meant that in the US market they're not a big player, not part of the big four companies. At least, as far as I know. I don't know much about the subject except that the number of companies that rule most of the market is small and shrinking.
In general, the prices aren’t close. Especially if you’re satisfied with store brands - and I think Aldi quality is very good - you can save a lot. Half gallon organic milk $4.49 at Giant, $2.39 at Aldi. Cheese and meats at dollars less per pound. $0.95 for a stalk of Dole celery. Aldi is always my first stop now.
Please excuse this old woman yelling at clouds rant I am about to do...
Another thing we could do to bring down inflation and corporate profits is just stop buying so much stuff! I know I am in a place in life where I don't need a lot of new things, and that for folks with growing kids, there is a certain amount of mandatory spending involved just to keep them fed and wearing clothes that fit. But there is just too much pressure on people to buy the newest, latest, hottest item of the most useless thing that you really don't need, but you won't be cool if you don't have it. You don't need to revamp your space with new throw pillows! You don't need a personal pizza oven or even an air fryer if you already have an oven. You don't need those cute boots if you already have boots! You don't need that status symbol watch if you already have a watch!
Mr. cc told me about something he read today about this girl's parents who spent $3000 to buy every kind of Stanley cup. Who needs that many Stanley cups? Are they gifts? Are they collectors items? Those people have too much disposable income. At least I hope they do.
How did I end up with all this stuff? Some of it was gifts. Some of it was me succumbing to consumeristic pressure (I'm worse now, because I'm not as broke as when I was younger). Some of it is mr. cc, who loves his new toys and his collections (anybody need some tools? Sockets, perhaps?)
When did we get so insane about buying new non-essential stuff? I swear it was not always like this. And it would be so much better for the planet if we just stopped buying all of it.
Our minds are being overburdened by constant exposure and constant connectedness and then hacked by advertising. Personally I live a mostly advert-free life and it is really good for me, despite the mess I am. I am sure I would be worse if I disabled my adblockers and started watching TV again.
as an oldz, i have requested that folks just make donations to my favorite charities. i sure don't need some of the stuff i got for xmas, so people need to listen more carefully.
That's the problem--everyone complains about high prices, then they go out and buy more than ever. What signal do you think that sends to sellers? So of course they keep ramping up prices!
We would do a lot more to bring down prices by committing to only giving each other handmade gifts, shopping exclusively for thrift items, and forgoing any unnecessary purchases wherever possible, than complaining about the high prices. Sellers watch consumer behavior, not consumers' words.
I would welcome a cultural shift away from giving bought gifts.
I only buy a few things for myself: food & drink, clothing, books, videogames, and occasionally a new bike if the current one falls apart. The only other category is buying stuff for birthdays (mostly toys for the kids around me, many of my friends have kids nowadays.)
I don't buy more clothes than I need, I splurge on food & drink (but I deserve it dammit!), I splurge on books and videogames, and I buy a cheap vehicle whenever I need it. So The only things I could save on are food, books, and videogames. Of which saving on books would make me most unhappy so I am not doing that. I am slightly reducing my food and drink spending and haven't got a handle (or plan) on videogames yet. So I don't think I am contributing to the whole "spending more than ever" thing you're seeing.
I think part of it is "retail therapy", people buying stuff because the short term high offers some relief from their general anxiety. So after the trauma of the pandemic and the widespread uncertainty the past few years have offered, people are just medicating themselves with purchases.
This phenomenon, by the way, is well documented and has been used by marketing for decades. Make people anxious about things and they spend more money.
"When did we get so insane about buying new non-essential stuff?"
When said "stuff" became a status marker
which was probably sometime around 1950
at which point in U.S. history (some people forget accidentally and some people "forget" on purpose) the more euphemistically-named "Jim Crow" -- even though we should call it by its proper name, APARTHEID -- was still in effect
Seriously. This rampant consumerism "keeping up with the Kartrashian" and latest "influencer" (a creature which, IMHO, shouldn't even exist) is going to kill this planet.
I'm currently going through a huge clean out and getting rid of shit I don't need. I'm not nor have I ever been the type of person to need the latest fashions, etc. (in fact, I hate clothes shopping because I don't like looking in the mirror b/c I've hated myself for decades--but that's another story).
I want to live a stripped down, minimalist existence going forward. I don't need heavy furniture that I can't easily move and vacuum behind (more of a concern as I age), I don't need the latest cooking gadgets (maybe a new Air Fryer, but that's about it), and I don't need my house loaded up with a bunch of dust catchers ("home decor").
All of this just makes our homes look overcluttered (my brother asked recently at my mom's "Why are we living like we're in the Depression?" commenting on all the unnecessary crap always piled up), stress us out and make us worry about our possessions, and are killing the planet.
My daughter got one on the cheap from the second hand store she works at, and it's going out, so that will be a purchase I will make in the near future.
Hahaha I wish I had counter space! I'd show you but it's embarrassing. I have loads of space, but it's covered in spices and bottles of vinegar and spice grinders and coffee grinders and boxes of flour and beans and pasta and ... just a lot of stuff.
AND I have loads of cupboard space and they're full too. I spend too much time in the kitchen.
OT. why is Trump bringing up pedophiles when he tries to defend himself?
"Donald Trump, speaking in Rochester, New Hampshire, compared himself to rogue cops and pedophiles in the church, telling the crowd that he, as well as all of these groups, need immunity to commit crimes or they will be unable to function properly.
Trump: But it's a little bit like the police. So you have a rogue cop. You know what a rogue cop is? Very seldom. But you have bad people. You have people. No matter where, no matter what. In the church, you have some people that aren't so good, right? But you have a rogue cop or a bad apple or whatever. And what they do is they make it so that you catch so that it can't happen and therefore everyone else is allowed to commit crimes, murders like at levels that we've never seen before. No, we're going to have to do this immunity for the president. If you have a president that doesn't have immunity, he's never going to be free to do anything because the opposing party will always indict him as soon as he leaves the White House. And you can't let that happen. You can't. Then you can't let that happen. You can't you take away all of the power of the presidency. It'll be a different country."
🙄 like that's ever going to really happen. I think there are too many high rollers on that list for it ever to see the light of day in it's full unedited form. No justice for the little people, blanket protection for the rich people.
Not in a trillion years did he commit suicide unless you count getting caught as committing suicide in some oblique way. But either way, his hand did not do the deed.
for police, i think he's talking about qualified immunity
as for priests, i'm guessing he means that a lot of them don't suffer consequences and are allowed to their job
in other words, police are allowed to commit crimes and priests are able to sexually assault children and they are allowed to go free more often than not
Prices always go up and we establish new normals of expectation.
The problem is that most increases are gradual and don't feel like a sudden slam that demands correction, as post-COVID jumps did, and then that is compounded by the fact that it takes a few years to get used to the new level.
If the Right was not screaming about "BIDENFLATION" we would already be on the downswing of public feeling but the counter to that is not expecting the public to just accept that things really are better.
Ads need to be focused on two things: the real numbers, but noting that that doesn't change feeling strained, and that you need someone on your side who will take on the Big Corporations to push back harder for you. Joe's ads on inflation really have to be in the style of fireside chats - acknowledging how people feel and then saying what he is doing that will build on what he has done, but definitely not singing that things are really great and just pointing fingers.
OT "Laura Loomer, the pro-Trump right-wing activist whose history of unhinged behavior even worries some of her fellow MAGA devotees, posted a bizarre new conspiracy theory accusing The Atlantic magazine of sending subliminal messages to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
In particular, Loomer says that a recent Atlantic article about the rapid decline of both inflation and crime over the last year is actually a call to murder Trump given that it features stock photos of a bullet hole shot through a piece of glass and a fistful of dollar bills that happen to contain the numbers 4 and 5, which Loomer believes is code for the 45th president.È
""The $10 bill in the photograph next to the bullet says 'WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND,'" she wrote in a separate post. "That writing on the bill was replaced with “IN GOD WE TRUST” in 1963. Alex Soros and The Atlantic specifically used this old $10 bill to highlight the JFK assassination.
"In fact, all of the paper currency in this photo is associated with political assassination. *Abraham Lincoln was assassinated *Alexander Hamilton pistol duel with Aaron Burr *Andrew Jackson was the first President to have an assassination attempt against him in 1835.""
And this tired old conspiracy theory has been out there for how many decades (not in relation to Trump, but I recall hearing my whackaloon proto-Trumper relatives talking about this shit in Reagan's day).
Indeed. We don't even have to conjure up a bunch of "cigar-chomping capitalist swine in the boardroom" colluding on how to profit from others' misery. It's just common sense, or a bit of game theory that's surely at play: if they raise their prices, we can raise ours without a hitch. And then we can all raise them some more (Whee! that was fun!) because for certain commodities, consumers have no real choice: they need the staple products we're selling. And even producers of non-essential stuff can then jump on the bandwagon. I think the idea that robust competition will invariably serve as an "Invisible Hand" breaks down as soon as big-time players realize they can sidestep it and all make a boatload of money no matter what. There is such a thing as an unstated monopoly.
The entire problem is the existence of big-time players.
The lower you keep the maximum marketshare, the more competition there is. So set a reasonable limit, like 1% of market share. Above that forbid mergers and increase taxes.
Our Canuck grocery chain Loblaws recently tried to add onto their already exorbitant profits by reducing their discount on food that’s at expiration from 50% off to 30% off “for parity with their competitors”. The press and Canadians basically told them to go shit in their hand and call it ice cream. It’s back to 50% with bonus threat of being investigated for price collusion.
So yeah, tell me more about inflation.🙄
Another facet of the corporate tax regime is that wages and benefits come off the top on tax returns so, when corporate taxes are high, corporations have a choice of giving money to the government or giving it to their employees--thus the paternalism of the 50's and 60's was rooted in tax incentives rather than altruism. Notice when corporate taxes were lowered, wages stagnated and benefits like pensions and health care were cut back--not a coincidence that corporate profits went to shareholders then
POOP! Capitalist POOP!
Trickle down economics is where wealthy people get richer and they piss all over the middle and lower class majority.
The worst part is that the rich do a lot less pissing than the poor. So for every gallon of champagne you pour down their gullets, us poor people (i.e. anyone who owns less than one paid off home, however tiny) only get a few drops of piss. If you truly wanted the water to flow, you would give the champagne to the poor: They piss out 99%.
I'm thinking it's not only urine anymore...
At least they piss champagne and 40yr old scotch. Imagine how bad it would be if they ate and drank what we're forced to consume.
Not asparagus. Please.
Took me four tries to spell that write. I might be slipping.
If they had any taste.
Liz Warren, save us from these fucksticks!
Huell Howser voice: "Are you trying to tell me that corporate CEOs are greedy lying scumbags?"
*Cameron look at this!*
http://www.losanjealous.com/2006/09/07/huell-howser-the-drinking-game/
Just spit balling here, but maybe the Biden Administration could dust of those moldy old anti-trust statutes. I know his Administration is probably doing more enforcement than any Administration in decades, but it is still woefully not up to the level of market concentration that is present across most industries. Not sure if this falls under anti-trust, but there is also a lot of colluding going on within key industries, like food processing (particularly meat) and Administrations have the ability to litigate against that as well.
They're already doing that, but it takes time for those actions to have any effect on prices.
Already happening my man, check out other newsfeeds if your current ones are not covering it. When it comes to anti-trust I always trust Doctorow's writing, homepage at pluralistic.net though also found elsewhere.
True. We're getting close to 2 or 3 grocery conglomerates controlling 80% of the stores.
It doesn't help that Republicans in Congress have continuously underfunded the agencies that enforce these anti-trust laws.
Yes yes YES. THIS.
Biden does need to do much more. It doesn't help that a price-fixing trial of chicken executives ended up with them being found not guilty.
Antitrust enforcement died under Reagan. Time to revive it.
Shit, yeah! The Shermans!
Inflation is especially when there is even a slight shortage of goods and companies in non-monopoly lines find they do not have to compete on price and can follow the leader on price increases without actually colluding. In an industry or product line with only a few competitors it's even easier, without meeting in secret somewhere to divide the market. And obviously monopolies or near monopolies have no problem at all. It's take it or leave it since any competitor cannot ramp up production and quickly enough to put a dent in demand. And they are most likely to just match you anyway. There needs to be a windfall tax or some mechanism like states use for price gouging after a natural disaster. Because public displeasure will not rein it in and this report will likely fade out of the news by tomorrow morning. While the news media still reports inflation is terrible. Despite it being down by 2/3 in the last two years, at around 3.5% since last summer, and much of that due to corporate gouging.
Corporations have learned that inflation blame never sticks to them, the public always wants to blame the president. Like a president has a magic inflation lever.
There's a name for what corporations are doing. It's called price fixing and it used to be illegal. In the good old days before republicans completely captured our courts and much of our regulatory systems.
I keep desperately praying that the judgement from the fraud trial is so unfathomably massive and devastating that Prezinazi AntiChrist strokes out completely to the point that he can only move his eyeballs--and the Republinazi party nominates him anyway; they have to wheel him out on stage like Hannibal Lector. And then they're all wiped out in November BY VOTES, and he lives on incapacitated for another 20 years.
Amen.
What I like about it is its plausibility
It would be very fitting if Trump had a stroke and ended up with locked-in syndrome. I almost wish that would happen.
We were discussing the Nazi episode of Star Trek a couple nights ago:
https://substack.com/profile/156642523-stanta-knows/note/c-47866553?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2l9e57
Fucking Herbert, man.
Make it so.
In response to grocery greedflation powered by retail industry concentration (I read somewhere that 80% of grocery distribution goes through just four companies), we’ve switched to shopping Aldi and local stores. Aldi can be occasionally frustrating because they don’t always stock everything and the local stores may not be cheaper but fuck those other guys.
Went to a US Aldi for the first time last week (just moved back from Germany). Prices were good, but I was irritated that they package many things in jumbo packs. For instance, you couldn’t buy one head of romaine lettuce, you had to buy a pack of 3. Which we won’t eat before it goes bad. And you couldn’t buy one package of ramen noodles; you had to buy a box of 12. Who has space for that? I get that it allows them to reduce margin, but it put me off.
Then again, when the choice is between suboptimal and evil, which do you prefer?
Having lived in Germany where Aldi started, I wouldn’t exactly call them a mom-and-pop business. They are ubiquitous in Germany, and across much of Europe. I don’t know anything about their corporate policies, but I wouldn’t choose them based on them being home-grown.
I... didn't say they were home-grown?
I just meant that in the US market they're not a big player, not part of the big four companies. At least, as far as I know. I don't know much about the subject except that the number of companies that rule most of the market is small and shrinking.
We shop almost exclusively at Sav-A-Lot so the price increases have been minimal.
If I'm gonna pay ridiculous prices I'd rather the buy local. But I have that luxury.
Y0u have to watch Aldi too. Their stuff is often smaller than at the other stores, so even with the lower price you are paying the same or more.
In general, the prices aren’t close. Especially if you’re satisfied with store brands - and I think Aldi quality is very good - you can save a lot. Half gallon organic milk $4.49 at Giant, $2.39 at Aldi. Cheese and meats at dollars less per pound. $0.95 for a stalk of Dole celery. Aldi is always my first stop now.
Please excuse this old woman yelling at clouds rant I am about to do...
Another thing we could do to bring down inflation and corporate profits is just stop buying so much stuff! I know I am in a place in life where I don't need a lot of new things, and that for folks with growing kids, there is a certain amount of mandatory spending involved just to keep them fed and wearing clothes that fit. But there is just too much pressure on people to buy the newest, latest, hottest item of the most useless thing that you really don't need, but you won't be cool if you don't have it. You don't need to revamp your space with new throw pillows! You don't need a personal pizza oven or even an air fryer if you already have an oven. You don't need those cute boots if you already have boots! You don't need that status symbol watch if you already have a watch!
Mr. cc told me about something he read today about this girl's parents who spent $3000 to buy every kind of Stanley cup. Who needs that many Stanley cups? Are they gifts? Are they collectors items? Those people have too much disposable income. At least I hope they do.
How did I end up with all this stuff? Some of it was gifts. Some of it was me succumbing to consumeristic pressure (I'm worse now, because I'm not as broke as when I was younger). Some of it is mr. cc, who loves his new toys and his collections (anybody need some tools? Sockets, perhaps?)
When did we get so insane about buying new non-essential stuff? I swear it was not always like this. And it would be so much better for the planet if we just stopped buying all of it.
Thank you for listening to my TED talk.
Our minds are being overburdened by constant exposure and constant connectedness and then hacked by advertising. Personally I live a mostly advert-free life and it is really good for me, despite the mess I am. I am sure I would be worse if I disabled my adblockers and started watching TV again.
I agree in principle, but one can never have too many 10mm sockets. They vanish like socks in the dryer.
as an oldz, i have requested that folks just make donations to my favorite charities. i sure don't need some of the stuff i got for xmas, so people need to listen more carefully.
That's the problem--everyone complains about high prices, then they go out and buy more than ever. What signal do you think that sends to sellers? So of course they keep ramping up prices!
We would do a lot more to bring down prices by committing to only giving each other handmade gifts, shopping exclusively for thrift items, and forgoing any unnecessary purchases wherever possible, than complaining about the high prices. Sellers watch consumer behavior, not consumers' words.
I would welcome a cultural shift away from giving bought gifts.
I only buy a few things for myself: food & drink, clothing, books, videogames, and occasionally a new bike if the current one falls apart. The only other category is buying stuff for birthdays (mostly toys for the kids around me, many of my friends have kids nowadays.)
I don't buy more clothes than I need, I splurge on food & drink (but I deserve it dammit!), I splurge on books and videogames, and I buy a cheap vehicle whenever I need it. So The only things I could save on are food, books, and videogames. Of which saving on books would make me most unhappy so I am not doing that. I am slightly reducing my food and drink spending and haven't got a handle (or plan) on videogames yet. So I don't think I am contributing to the whole "spending more than ever" thing you're seeing.
I think part of it is "retail therapy", people buying stuff because the short term high offers some relief from their general anxiety. So after the trauma of the pandemic and the widespread uncertainty the past few years have offered, people are just medicating themselves with purchases.
This phenomenon, by the way, is well documented and has been used by marketing for decades. Make people anxious about things and they spend more money.
"When did we get so insane about buying new non-essential stuff?"
When said "stuff" became a status marker
which was probably sometime around 1950
at which point in U.S. history (some people forget accidentally and some people "forget" on purpose) the more euphemistically-named "Jim Crow" -- even though we should call it by its proper name, APARTHEID -- was still in effect
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691172422/hitlers-american-model
All. Of. This.
Shout it from the rooftops, sister! Preach on.
Seriously. This rampant consumerism "keeping up with the Kartrashian" and latest "influencer" (a creature which, IMHO, shouldn't even exist) is going to kill this planet.
I'm currently going through a huge clean out and getting rid of shit I don't need. I'm not nor have I ever been the type of person to need the latest fashions, etc. (in fact, I hate clothes shopping because I don't like looking in the mirror b/c I've hated myself for decades--but that's another story).
I want to live a stripped down, minimalist existence going forward. I don't need heavy furniture that I can't easily move and vacuum behind (more of a concern as I age), I don't need the latest cooking gadgets (maybe a new Air Fryer, but that's about it), and I don't need my house loaded up with a bunch of dust catchers ("home decor").
All of this just makes our homes look overcluttered (my brother asked recently at my mom's "Why are we living like we're in the Depression?" commenting on all the unnecessary crap always piled up), stress us out and make us worry about our possessions, and are killing the planet.
You should come sit next to me. That "dust catchers" bit sealed the deal.
I have three air fryers :(
So, you're a product tester now? Which one is best?
It is by far the T-Fal actifry paddle one.
https://www.amazon.com/T-Fal-FZ710851-Actifry-Electric-Fryer/dp/B076SDJZZ5
LMAO!!! I need a new one!
My daughter got one on the cheap from the second hand store she works at, and it's going out, so that will be a purchase I will make in the near future.
Hahaha I wish I had counter space! I'd show you but it's embarrassing. I have loads of space, but it's covered in spices and bottles of vinegar and spice grinders and coffee grinders and boxes of flour and beans and pasta and ... just a lot of stuff.
AND I have loads of cupboard space and they're full too. I spend too much time in the kitchen.
Good food is essential for good functioning. Keep enjoying it!
XD XD XD XD XD XD
OT. why is Trump bringing up pedophiles when he tries to defend himself?
"Donald Trump, speaking in Rochester, New Hampshire, compared himself to rogue cops and pedophiles in the church, telling the crowd that he, as well as all of these groups, need immunity to commit crimes or they will be unable to function properly.
Trump: But it's a little bit like the police. So you have a rogue cop. You know what a rogue cop is? Very seldom. But you have bad people. You have people. No matter where, no matter what. In the church, you have some people that aren't so good, right? But you have a rogue cop or a bad apple or whatever. And what they do is they make it so that you catch so that it can't happen and therefore everyone else is allowed to commit crimes, murders like at levels that we've never seen before. No, we're going to have to do this immunity for the president. If you have a president that doesn't have immunity, he's never going to be free to do anything because the opposing party will always indict him as soon as he leaves the White House. And you can't let that happen. You can't. Then you can't let that happen. You can't you take away all of the power of the presidency. It'll be a different country."
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/trump-compares-himself-to-rogue-cop-pedophile
That's word salad.
"OT. why is Trump bringing up pedophiles when he tries to defend himself?"
Because he's a classic projectionist
Speaking of which, I thought the American public (and the world) were supposed to have seen those "Epstein papers" by now
🙄 like that's ever going to really happen. I think there are too many high rollers on that list for it ever to see the light of day in it's full unedited form. No justice for the little people, blanket protection for the rich people.
I still don't believe Epstein committed suicide.
Not in a trillion years did he commit suicide unless you count getting caught as committing suicide in some oblique way. But either way, his hand did not do the deed.
I am having a real hard time trying to make out what the f--- he is saying.
Which only serves to indicate your relative sanity...
for police, i think he's talking about qualified immunity
as for priests, i'm guessing he means that a lot of them don't suffer consequences and are allowed to their job
in other words, police are allowed to commit crimes and priests are able to sexually assault children and they are allowed to go free more often than not
To use those examples of how qualified immunity is a good thing is just peak Trump.
twisted and disturbing
Prices always go up and we establish new normals of expectation.
The problem is that most increases are gradual and don't feel like a sudden slam that demands correction, as post-COVID jumps did, and then that is compounded by the fact that it takes a few years to get used to the new level.
If the Right was not screaming about "BIDENFLATION" we would already be on the downswing of public feeling but the counter to that is not expecting the public to just accept that things really are better.
Ads need to be focused on two things: the real numbers, but noting that that doesn't change feeling strained, and that you need someone on your side who will take on the Big Corporations to push back harder for you. Joe's ads on inflation really have to be in the style of fireside chats - acknowledging how people feel and then saying what he is doing that will build on what he has done, but definitely not singing that things are really great and just pointing fingers.
OT "Laura Loomer, the pro-Trump right-wing activist whose history of unhinged behavior even worries some of her fellow MAGA devotees, posted a bizarre new conspiracy theory accusing The Atlantic magazine of sending subliminal messages to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
In particular, Loomer says that a recent Atlantic article about the rapid decline of both inflation and crime over the last year is actually a call to murder Trump given that it features stock photos of a bullet hole shot through a piece of glass and a fistful of dollar bills that happen to contain the numbers 4 and 5, which Loomer believes is code for the 45th president.È
""The $10 bill in the photograph next to the bullet says 'WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND,'" she wrote in a separate post. "That writing on the bill was replaced with “IN GOD WE TRUST” in 1963. Alex Soros and The Atlantic specifically used this old $10 bill to highlight the JFK assassination.
"In fact, all of the paper currency in this photo is associated with political assassination. *Abraham Lincoln was assassinated *Alexander Hamilton pistol duel with Aaron Burr *Andrew Jackson was the first President to have an assassination attempt against him in 1835.""
https://www.rawstory.com/laura-loomer-2667036962/
The USA didn't issue paper currency until the Civil War. And they didn't use a picture of a President on it. It was the Sec of the Treasury.
She's coo-coo in the coconut!
And this tired old conspiracy theory has been out there for how many decades (not in relation to Trump, but I recall hearing my whackaloon proto-Trumper relatives talking about this shit in Reagan's day).
Far out, man.
I'm tempted to laugh but then I remember how Charles Manson twisted "The White Album".
She's nuts AND possibly dangerous.
She has entirely too much influence on a particularly undesirable deplorable demographic. That unequivocally makes her a threat.
Which is why I increasingly think the type of bullshit she is spewing shouldn't be protected by the 1A. *shrug*
If anyone in her life cares about her, they need to get her help.
Nobody cares about Laura Looney. She's too hateful and full of nasty bile for anyone to actually care for.
I found a fiver on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas while waiting for JFK Jr. to make an appearance.
I paid some homeless guys to stay clear of the shot while someone took a photo of me lurking on the grassy knoll.
Okay Laura, step away from the shrooms.
Shrooms make you one with the universe. Not creepy, racist and rabid.
Shrooms make me see patterns everywhere. They're most definitely not real :D Fun though. They also make me laugh.
Yeah,😁 they're called fractals or sometimes the fabric of the universe.
She's not taking the good ones.
This kind of absurd nonsense makes my hair hurt.
It’s making mine fall out.
That sounds like some solid research and reasoning right there!
Shart-solid research.
Would someone please fetch me the thorazine darts?
I'd dart myself if I was forced to listen to the ruminations of Laura Looney too long.
whew---I stopped trying to follow that after the first sentence---the Q is deep with this one