DL Open Thread Wednesday, April 10, 2024
The day after Trump pretended he’d let the states make their own decisions about abortion, the Arizona Supreme Court gave away the game by reinstating an 1864 ban on the procedure, notable because Arizona wasn’t even a state back then. The result: Republicans rushed to pretend they had nothing to do with it. The White House reminded everyone otherwise.
Those who put stock in polling have been worried for months about Biden’s weak numbers dating back to his withdrawal from Afghanistan. They should have less to worry about recently, because he’s been gaining ground on Trump in all of them. They can now start worrying that he’s not far enough ahead to overcome Trump’s advantage in the Electoral College.
The continuing slide of the still-vastly-overvalued Truth Social stock has caused Bloomberg to dump Trump from its running list of billionaires. Bloomberg updates this list daily, which is an indictment of our society all by itself.
Inflation at the grocery store has been out of control. Biden gets blamed, but the real culprit is consolidation towards monopoly all along the food chain, from producers to retailers. Easier to blame Biden, though.
Trying to hold corporations accountable is an uphill battle. Remember when the only Palestine in the headlines was East Palestine, Ohio, the site of last year’s train derailment and toxic chemical spill? The negligent railroad, Norfolk Southern, reached an agreement in principle to pay $600 million to settle lawsuits. The corporation did not, however, admit to any liability. Never forget that corporations have more rights than you do.
The floor’s yours.
Bringing back aggressive anti-trust action is part of the equation for restoring the middle class. Good news that Biden is making moves in that direction but unfortunately is likely to be mostly be swatted down by the MAGA courts.
I find grocery inflation mostly affects junk food I don’t buy anyway – cookies, chips, ice cream, soda, drinks, boxed cereal. Those are the examples I usually see in inflation scare articles.
Shoppers who just go to one store and pile their cart with everything they (or their kids) want will see the biggest increase. Retailers take advantage of people who don’t (or can’t) comparison-shop and don’t follow the sales.
Increases on healthy foods are more moderate. Chicken parts are usually less than $1/lb. Boneless chicken breast or pork chops were $1.99/lb for a long time (on frequent sales) and just recently they are trying to charge 2.49, but they may not be able to maintain that price.
Beef prices are “out of control” due to demand and chronically high cost of production, but beef is unsustainable anyway. Eat something else.
In-season produce prices remain relatively low. Out-of-season or non-local produce has increased more due to shipping and handling increases.
I expect retail prices to go up somewhat due to increased labor costs – good for them! I don’t want to shop in stores with miserable underpaid workers.