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We know this is the case. I’ve addressed this before, but I’ve come to realize with some recent examples that the GQP already knows that everything they are promoting, everything they are saying to the American people - is a lie. It’s a lie made on purpose.
All of these people can not possibly be this stupid. And if they are, that truly doesn’t say anything good.
We recently had the GQP freak out that Biden was “disrespectful” to Christians by declaring that Transgender Day of Visibility fell on Easter.
Seriously, people?
Rocco 7 hrs ago
Oh no! People who's opinions are different than yours??! Oh my...how challenged you must feel.
No, it’s not about a matter of “opinion” — it’s about matters of fact. We have them and they - mostly - don’t. I know that they don’t accept that view, and don’t accept facts from credible or verified sources — but that’s exactly the point. They think all those sources are “tainted” and “compromised” - but they have no evidence of that other than that they don’t like the answers they provide and it functions as yet another level of their deep sad paranoia. Then they do accept and believe the most crackpot bullshit on Earth without evidence or attribution because they choose to. Those delusions make them feel better.
And when you go “Yeah, sure the media/source is maybe sometimes ‘biased’ but where is the proof that the information they’re providing in this case is wrong? Where is the evidence they’re incorrect this time? Where are your *better* sources?”
They can’t answer. There is no factual argument. Just “opinions.”
It’s not a battle of bad fact vs. better fact - it’s facts vs feelings. Doing all this makes them “feel” better - while they tell us “Fuck your feelings.” Simply put, they want to believe that crap, that’s all. It makes them think they’re the “smart ones,” that they’ve “cracked the code” of the dreaded “Deep State” and the “Left-Wing media” when they demonstrably haven’t and aren’t. They pre-judge information based on their opinion of the source. Which is bigotry. They don’t even try to consider the character of that information’s specific accuracy.
They just prefer to believe ridiculous paranoid lies over verifiable facts. That. is. all.
We frankly don’t even live or exist in the same functional reality. Yes, it’s hard dealing with people who choose to exist in a delusional fantasy. It’s basically impossible.
And it’s not a coincidence or accident that Fox News spent hours on shit like this.
Matthew Gertz @MattGertz
Fox News and Newsmax combined for four hours of programming -- nearly 80 segments -- in an anti-Biden freak out over Transgender Day of Visibility coinciding with Easter.
Florida’s Voice @FLVoiceNews Apr 1
BREAKING: DeSantis goes off on Joe Biden for declaring "Transgender Day of Visibility" on Easter, then claiming he didn't do it "Who's running the presidency? Is it a bunch of woke, 20 something White House staffers? [...] I don't know who's in charge. The fact that he's not…
ustonymc@ustonymc
Transgender Day of Visibility? Joe, one day in the future you will have to explain to God, face to face, why you proposed this despicable day of mental illness on the day He rose from the dead! GOOD LUCK! 3:56 AM · Apr 1, 2024
Yeah but…
Yeah, those pesky “Facts” amirite?
It’s not the case that this was an innocent mistake. You can tell because as soon as News agencies and even the White House pointed this out - that March 31st has been “Transgender Day” for the last 15 years and Joe Biden didn’t do anything different here than what Donald Trump did four times - they ignore that fact. Even though the Daily Caller retracted this bogus claim - the GOP persists.
This is not a bug within the GQP system - it’s a deliberate feature.
This is all on purpose.
Certainly, some people are trapped inside information silos and are not getting the full story. But that simply isn’t everyone who chooses to spout this nonsense. The rest of them are knowingly doing it on purpose because there are no consequences for being a blatant liar anymore.
For example, Undocumented Migrants do not “bring crime” to the cities.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign moved quickly to tie the killing of a Georgia nursing student, allegedly by a Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally in 2022, to the surge of undocumented immigrants at the southern border under the Biden administration. His campaign posted a video that, with pounding music, combines news clips about the case with clips of Biden administration officials assuring people that the border was secure. It ends with the blunt message above.
Never mind that violent crime rates, especially for homicide in large cities, have fallen sharply during Biden’s presidency, after a surge during the pandemic. Trump, as he often did during his presidency, is using anecdotal evidence to make an emotional case against undocumented immigrants.
Trump is drawing on a long history of anti-immigrant rhetoric.
A 2020 study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed 200,000 congressional speeches and 5,000 presidential communications on immigration since 1880, when a wave of Chinese immigrants led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that barred Chinese laborers. When lawmakers spoke about immigration, their speeches were twice as likely as their speeches on other topics to mention words related to crime.
Moreover, the study found “stark differences” in how lawmakers discussed European and non-European groups, with “more implicitly dehumanizing metaphors” used to describe Chinese, Mexicans and other non-Europeans. “There is also a striking similarity in the use of explicit frames, with a greater emphasis on ‘crime,’ ‘labor,’ and ‘legality’ for the non-Europeans and less on ‘family,’ ‘contributions,’ ‘victims,’ and ‘culture,’” the study said.
The study found that since the late 1970s, a significant shift in the way Republicans talk about immigration; it is now as negative as it was in the 1920s, an era of strict immigration quotas. As for Trump, he was the first president whose immigration language was more negative than that of the average member of his own party.
But here’s the rub: There is little evidence that immigrants — or even undocumented immigrants — cause more crime. Still, there is enough ambiguity in the data — or so little hard data — that it’s difficult to point to conclusive findings that would change opinions.
Trump has tried to use isolated tragedies like Laken Riley and Ruby Garcia to burnish his reputation as being “Tough on Crime.” Just like he claimed that China and Mexico were gonna create a “bloodbath” in the auto industry, but now he’s says there’s going to be a “bloodbath” at the border.
So which is it? Or is it both bloodbaths? In the whole… country. (And more fear-mongering)
As I’ve said before, using Border Patrol’s own data President Biden using Title 42 has arrested and expelled an all-time record of over 4.5 Million people at the border. The border is not “Open.” Only families and single children have been allowed to enter temporarily until their deportation hearings, everyone else has been blocked.
Further, crime rates have gone down as migrants have entered the country.
Opponents of immigration often argue that immigrants drive up crime rates. But newly released research from Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky and his co-authors finds that hasn’t been the case in America for the last 140 years.
The study
reveals that first-generation immigrants have not been more likely to be imprisoned than people born in the United States since 1880.
Today, immigrants are 30 percent less likely to be incarcerated than are U.S.-born individuals who are white, the study finds. And when the analysis is expanded to include Black Americans — whose prison rates are higher than the general population — the likelihood of an immigrant being incarcerated is 60 percent lower than of people born in the United States.
While other research has also debunked claims that immigration leads to more crime, this study of incarceration rates provides the broadest historical look at the relationship between immigration and crime across the country and over time, says author Abramitzky. Abramitzky is the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Economics and senior associate dean of social sciences in the School of Humanities and Sciences, as well as a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).
Also, there has never been a terrorist attack that injured or killed a single American by someone who entered by crossing the Southern Border. It has never happened.
I testified that zero Americans have been injured or killed in terrorist attacks by illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who entered through the southwest border. Indeed, there have been zero terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who crossed that border.
However, nine foreign‐born terrorists have entered the United States illegally since 1975. Three convicted illegal immigrant terrorists crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. They are Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka, and Shain Duka, and they entered illegally in 1984 when they were aged 5, 3, and 1, respectively. They were arrested in 2007 while plotting to attack Fort Dix. Of the other illegal immigrant terrorists, five illegally crossed the U.S.-Canada border, and one was a stowaway on a ship.
The only example of a “terrorist plan” was a bunch of brothers who came into the US as children and didn’t even implement their plan. Again, we’ve had millions of migrants enter since then — and that’s the only example?.
So, “Invasion”, “Migrants bring Crime” and are “Terrorists” are lies. It’s always been a lie. And they also don’t get Federal Benefits.
The major federal public benefits programs have long excluded some non–U.S. citizens from eligibility for assistance. Programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program), nonemergency Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and its precursor, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), were largely unavailable to undocumented immigrants and people in the United States on temporary visas.
However, the 1996 federal welfare and immigration laws introduced an unprecedented era of restrictionism.[1] Prior to the enactment of these laws, lawful permanent residents of the U.S. generally were eligible for assistance in a manner similar to U.S. citizens. Once the laws were implemented, most lawfully residing immigrants were barred from receiving assistance under the major federal benefits programs for five years or longer.
Even where eligibility for immigrants was preserved by the 1996 laws or restored by subsequent legislation, many immigrant families hesitate to enroll in critical health care, job-training, nutrition, and cash assistance programs due to fear and confusion caused by the laws’ complexity and other intimidating factors. As a result, the participation of immigrants in public benefits programs decreased sharply after passage of the 1996 laws, causing severe hardship for many low-income immigrant families who lacked the support available to other low-income families.[2]
Again, the argument that migrants are “criminals”, “terrorists” and are “freeloaders” are all lies.
F. Vyan Walton - Dark Skies on the Horizon @Vyan1
They know that migrants don't "bring crime." They know that migrants don't get federal benefits. They don't get SNAP, General Assistance or Section 8. They know that there is no law to block or deport *every* migrant without probable cause or a hearing.
12:29 PM · Apr 3, 2024
If migrants aren’t dangerous, and they aren’t “draining resources” — why exactly are so many people upset about migration? Is it the “Great Replacement Theory” - as if that had any basis in fact too? Is it because they’ll “Vote for Democrats” when none of them can legally vote?
F. Vyan Walton - Dark Skies on the Horizon @Vyan1
They know migrants can't legally vote. All they have are paranoid excuses. They just want to FEAR MONGER over the "Illegal Alien." They just want to whine about the "Invasion." They don't want to fix the structural reasons for migration at the source.
12:29 PM · Apr 3, 2024
They argue that migrants should "enter the right way” — but exactly how do you do that? Most people who are here without documentation came here using a Visitors Visa and just stayed after it expired. Is that the “right way?” That method doesn’t allow you to work legally. If you don’t already have U.S. Citizens in your immediate family who can sponsor you (like Melania did with her parents) the only way to “enter legally” and be able to work and provide for yourself is to be sponsored by a company or corporation with an H-2A or H2-B Visa. But there are only 66,000 slots available for those each year. All of these people had to have someone else give them a hand out to get here legally. So if you don't have that hand out how many years are you supposed to wait while your life is at risk for a sponsored slot to open up?
All of this is why people take their chances and come to the border to request Asylum under international law or else use Asylum as a defensive measure against being deported again.
It's worth the risk when your life and your family's survival is on the line.
And also, coming to the border and requesting Asylum is perfectly legal, that's how the process was designed to work. [Yes, there is a tiny fraction who enter and deliberately avoid border patrol in the process so they aren't entered into the system and don't go through deportation hearings — and frankly — that's an issue, but it's a very small number (2-5%) compared to those who are using the legal process of Asylum and are going to their hearings.]
When you reduce and remove all the bogus excuses - all you have left is the obvious. Racism. Pure, unadulterated racism. They are “Poisoning the blood of the nation.” This is Nazi shit. Trump has promised to implement Military Mass Deportations and Concentration Camps against every immigrant — even those who did “do it the right way”, you think he really recognises the difference? — just like the Germans did against Jews, Gypys and Gays.
WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump, if re-elected in 2024, would expand his first-term immigration crackdown to include sweeping roundups of people who would be held in large camps to await deportation, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
The report was based on interviews with several advisers, including Stephen Miller, who oversaw Trump's first-term immigration policies, the Times said.
It described Trump's plans as "an assault on immigration on a scale unseen in modern American history" and said it aimed to deport millions of people every year, including those who have been settled in the United States for decades.
This is not hyperbole and not an exaggeration. This would be a crime against humanity.
It’s pure xenophobia against people who are simply running away from gangs, cartels, socialism and environmental disasters. They are otherizing wide swaths of people so that they can divide and conquer. All these other excuses are lies, and they know that they are lies. But those lies cover up what is true, and that’s what they want.
Decoding Fox News @DecodingFoxNews
Fox keeps insisting that "the migrants who flipped off the cameras" beat police officers. In at least one case, a migrant, was full exonerated. Although it received coverage in local media Fox News has never mentioned it. I've included a streaming news segment from Comcast mitúTV
10:50 AM · Apr 4, 2024
And it’s not just “Migrant Crime” there’s another blatant lie about “Crime in Democrat Cities.”
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St. Louis, MO (2,082)
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Detroit, MI (2,057)
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Baltimore, MD (2,027)
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Memphis, TN (2,003)
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Little Rock, AR (1,634)
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Milwaukee, WI (1,597)
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Rockford, IL (1,588)
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Cleveland, OH (1,557)
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Stockton, CA (1,415)
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Albuquerque, NM (1,369)
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Springfield, MO (1,339)
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Indianapolis, IN (1,334)
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Oakland, CA (1,299)
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San Bernardino, CA (1,291)
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Anchorage, AK (1,203)
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Nashville, TN (1,138)
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Lansing, MI (1,136)
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New Orleans, LA (1,121)
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Minneapolis, MN (1,101)
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Chicago, IL (1,099)
So why exactly isn’t Jim Jordan talking shit about violent crime in Cleveland Ohio which is in his own backyard? Justin M. Bibb, the Mayor of Cleveland, is also a Democrat so he could easily make the exact same argument - but he doesn’t, does he?
How does Ohio compare with Illinois for crime?
Ohio ranks at #29 (at 293.6 Violent Crimes per 100k) while Illinois is #30 (at 287.3 Violent Crimes per 100k) for their violent crime rate. They’re almost identical - so why is Jim Jordan - still - talking about Illinois as if their problem is so “terrible” compared to his own state?
Because he’s lying. It’s a lie by omission, but it’s still a lie, and he’s doing it on purpose.
This kind of thing got me thinking, the GOP has been making a big deal about “Cash Bail Reform” claiming that it’s increasing crime in “Democrat Cites.” Considering how much they lie about - is it possible that the big stink they made about “Cash Bail” being responsible for the recent death of NYPD officer Jonathan Diller could be a complete crock of shit?
And I was right:
nypost.com/..."Rivera, 34, is also a seasoned criminal with 21 busts under his belt and spent five years in state prison on a drug conviction before he was released in 2021 and completed his parole in 2022."
The shooter, the person who killed Officer Diller was out on parole for his previous crimes. He wasn’t offered a release from bail. Now, the car’s driver did have a weapon charge last year and he wasn’t remanded into custody - but he’s not the killer, and there’s no evidence he would have harmed Diller.
It’s a lie that “Cash Bail Reform” has led to increased crime.
Bail reform has been a hotly debated issue in New York and throughout the United States, with proponents arguing that a cash bail system is unfair to poorer defendants and opponents arguing that setting bail for those arrested deters crime. In 2019 New York lawmakers passed a law eliminating bail for most misdemeanors and some non-violent felony charges, with the accused allowed to go free until a court hearing or released with conditions such as electronic monitoring. An amendment that went into effect in July 2020 rolled back some aspects of the reform, expanding the list of offenses eligible for cash bail.
The SCJ study, “Does Bail Reform Increase Crime in New York State: Evidence from Interrupted Time-Series and Synthetic Control Methods,” was published earlier this month in Justice Quarterly. Led by Sishi Wu, who received her PhD from SCJ in April, it’s the first study to evaluate the effects of New York’s bail reform law on the entire state and “the first attempt to disentangle the effects of bail reform and national historic events” such as the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Wu and co-author David McDowall, a distinguished teaching professor at SCJ.
Their study found that murder, larceny and auto theft increased after bail reform, but that bail reform itself did not contribute to that increase.
"We used data from the New York State index crimes, consisting of monthly crime counts for seven offenses: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft,” Wu said. “Monthly crime data from other states were also collected from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program to create a control group to compare with New York."
In fact, crime rates overall have been generally decreasing.
The new fourth-quarter numbers showed a 13% decline in murder in 2023 from 2022, a 6% decline in reported violent crime and a 4% decline in reported property crime. That’s based on data from around 13,000 law enforcement agencies, policing about 82% of the U.S. population, that provided the FBI with data through December.
“It suggests that when we get the final data in October, we will have seen likely the largest one-year decline in murder that has ever been recorded,” said Jeff Asher, a former CIA analyst who now studies crime trends.
So the entire “Biden crime wave” is yet another lie.
“Crime in Democrat cities” is also a lie - most of the cities with the greatest crime are in Red States, if you look at the list I previously posted above it’s Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Wisconsin (swing), Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana and Minnesota - as well as Illinois, Michigan and California.
San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles are hardly even on the list. This is yet another fearmongering lie, this time against Black People because they tend to live in those so-called “Democrat Cities” since they previously fled from the South due to Jim Crow and racism decades ago.
Decoding Fox News @DecodingFoxNews
Fox News constantly lies about crime in New York City. The city is considered one of the safest large cities in the country. Crime on a per capita basis is quite low. I've provided the latest crimes stats via the NYPD. RECEIPTS 1:24 PM · Apr 4, 2024
David Neiwert @DavidNeiwert
I've been inspired by Fox News and Donald Trump inventing a new crime category: "migrant crime." Trump has been touting the "new category" in all of his stump speeches this year.
11:56 AM · Apr 4, 2024
Let’s be honest, all of this is Nazi bullshit. It’s Willey Horton run amok. This is taking a few small isolated tragic examples and blowing them up into “This is coming to your town!” And it’s not.
Every time a cop kills an unarmed person they tell us “its just a few bad apples.” But, it’s literally happening hundreds - even thousands - of times every year. How many fucking “bad apples” do they have? Why can’t they just chuck the bushel and start over?
This is the shit they’ve done to minorities - black, brown, yellow and red people - for centuries. Just imagine if we were to take the worst examples of White criminals and start arguing.that this is the norm? Imagine if every time there was another rapist pedophile found in the church, every time we had another serial killer like Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy, every time we had a mass AR-15 murder like Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Christchurch, Tree of Life, the El Paso Walmart or the Buffalo Tops Market people went — “That’s just what White People are like!” “You don’t want - animals and vermin - like them living next to you, right!” How many J6 Insurrectionists do you have in your neighborhood? Do you have another Dominick Pezzola next door? Just imagine if we only focused on the most egregious radical examples of behavior by White people and paid no attention to everything else? What if every single White person had to carry the responsibility for standing in as the personal representative for everybody else in their race. Gee, wouldn’t that suck?
Yeah, but that’s exactly what it’s like for minorities in America.
Honestly, despite Elon Musk and his faux “individualism” bullshit minorities have never been allowed the autonomy to be considered as unique individual people. Somehow, magically, every Black person is personally responsible for the evils of every other Black person. And every Brown person is somehow complicit in the actions of every evil Brown person.
But White people have no collective or community responsibility at all. For anything. Ever. Nobody ever considers there might be a “flaw in their culture” leading to all this violence.
Ain’t that lucky? Or is it by design? Isn’t that exactly the point of all this?
I’ve already gone through the process to prove that Joe Biden has been implementing the laws at the border correctly, that “remain in Mexico” did not work as a policy, and there is no law that allows for the border to be completely closed and for everyone crossing the border to be arrested or expelled without cause and without a hearing. That’s not the law. It’s never has been the law.
Only in the recent Bipartisan Senate Bill was a proposal like that even put forward, and the GOP squashed it like a bug.
F. Vyan Walton - Dark Skies on the Horizon @Vyan1
"Please stop the flow of migrants into this Country" - Alice Stewart.
They had a bill on the table to do exactly that Alice - the GOP blocked it. They know that is the case. They are Lying. to. you.
12:29 PM · Apr 3, 2024
They have no interest in “solving” the border crisis. None.
Also, this is some bullshit.
They complain about high prices and inflation, but they “ignore” that inflation increased all over the world at the same time. [It had nothing to do with US Oil production, which — by the way — is at an all-time record high) They ignore that the US has had a historic recovery from inflation and has been leading most nations’ inflation reduction over the past year, dropping from over 9% down to just 3.1%.
US inflation is set to further recede in 2024, ending the year near the Federal Reserve’s 2% target as economic disruptions from the pandemic fade further and prices of some goods even decline.
America is way down the list of countries with high inflation.
Country (Current Inflation rate) (Previous Rate)
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Argentina 276 254 Feb/24 %
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Turkey 68.5 67.07 Mar/24 %
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Russia 7.7 7.4 Feb/24 %
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South Africa 5.6 5.3 Feb/24 %
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India 5.09 5.1 Feb/24 %
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Brazil 4.5 4.51 Feb/24 %
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Mexico 4.4 4.88 Feb/24 %
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Australia 4.1 5.4 Dec/23 %
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Singapore 3.4 2.9 Feb/24 %
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United Kingdom 3.4 4 Feb/24 %
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Spain 3.2 2.8 Mar/24 %
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United States 3.2 3.1 Feb/24 %
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Netherlands 3.1 2.8 Mar/24 %
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South Korea 3.1 3.1 Mar/24 %
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Indonesia 3.05 2.75 Mar/24 %
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Canada 2.8 2.9 Feb/24 %
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Japan 2.8 2.2 Feb/24 %
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Euro Area 2.4 2.6 Mar/24 %
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France 2.3 3 Mar/24 %
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Germany 2.2 2.5 Mar/24 %
This information is not hard to get. It’s not hard to find. When they complain about US Inflation being “So High” they are Lying. to. You.
Yes, prices are still high even though inflation has receded. They ignore that the reason for that has been corporate price gouging.
As the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation has surged in recent months affecting both retailers and consumers gearing up for the holidays.
In November, Digital.com surveyed 1,000 retail owners and executives to discover how inflation is impacting profitability, pricing, and discount offers this shopping season.
Our findings revealed that more than half of retail businesses are using inflation to drive up prices higher than what’s necessary to offset increased costs.
Key Findings
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56% of retail businesses say inflation has given them the ability to raise prices beyond what’s required to offset higher costs
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Over half of retailers have increased prices by 20% or more on average
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52% of businesses are offering fewer or no discounts this holiday season
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Shrinking discounts and increasing price of complementary products are most popular ways businesses are driving up prices
If costs were so high, we wouldn't be seeing so many corporations making record profits. They’re sticking us with the bill and pocketing the difference.
A new report claims “resounding evidence” shows that high corporate profits are a main driver of ongoing inflation, and companies continue to keep prices high even as their inflationary costs drop.
The report, compiled by the progressive Groundwork Collaborative thinktank, found corporate profits accounted for about 53% of inflation during last year’s second and third quarters. Profits drove just 11% of price growth in the 40 years prior to the pandemic, according to the report.
Prices for consumers rose by 3.4% over the past year, but input costs for producers increased by just 1%, according to the authors’ calculations, which were based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and National Income and Products Accounts.
“Costs have come down substantially, and while corporations were quick to pass on their increased costs to consumers, they are surprisingly less quick to pass on their savings to consumers,” Liz Pancotti, a Groundwork strategic adviser and paper co-author, said.
It’s been Joe Biden who has bought up the issue of price gouging, not anyone in the GOP. In fact, just like with Immigration — they don’t have any solution for Inflation or High Prices at all. Nothing. Zip.
It’s also very clear that we were not better off than “Four Years” ago when we were in the midst of a World-wide pandemic that Trump dropped the ball on.
This information is easy to access, as is the information about Transgender Day, and the data about migrants, immigration, crime rates, and inflation. The truth is obvious. These are the primary arguments used against re-electing President Biden as if he has “caused” all these problems and all of them are based on lies.
They are all bogus.
They are not mistakes. They are not oversights. They. are. deliberate. They are trying to manipulate people, using lies to push them into the corner they want them to be in. Trying to frighten them into lashing out. They did exactly that with their despicable lies about the fraud in the 2020 election, leading directly to the January 6 attack to derail democracy. People thought they were “Stopping the Steal” but instead - they were implementing the steal, exactly as it was planned and documented in the Six-Step Strategy by John Eastman, with the help of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
All they needed was for the riotous crowd to force Mike Pence out of the building so Senate Pro-Tem Chuck Grassley could install the fake Electors and keep Trump in the White House. That was the plan and it almost worked. Next time it will be worse.
I understand that people have their feelings. Nobody likes to be told ‘You’re wrong.” It can be difficult to accept, it can be painful. Having doubt can be disconcerting, while certainty is comforting. But not everyone knows everything because that simply isn’t possible. We have to always ask “What don’t I know? What else might I discover?”
I used to be a Centrist DLC Democrat who agreed that there needed to be a “Third Way” beyond typical Democratic and Republican arguments. I used to think we needed to look at both sides honestly and come up with reasonable moderate plans using the ideas of both to solve problems. Not anymore. All the ideas from the Right are frankly and honestly based on delusional bullshit, and have been pretty much since the W Bush Administration. Still, I have never blindly believed everything the Left has to say about anything. I believe what the evidence shows me. I don’t care what the truth turns out to be, I just want the truth.
If I thought trickle-down economics was true, and was backed up by the facts - I would have to be for it. I would have to give in to that reality - but it’s not true. Looking at the impact tax cuts have on the deficit makes it clear. That’s yet another lie. The problem isn’t that it’s a Right-wing idea, the problem is that it’s provably wrong - Bill Clinton’s budget absolutely and clearly proved that by balancing the budget and creating a surplus after raising taxes. Tax cuts for the rich fail. Every time. If we want to balance the budget, produce a surplus and pay down the debt, all we really need to do is cancel the Bush and Trump tax cuts. That’s it. That’s all. But that’s the last thing Republicans will ever admit because they’re dedicated to cutting Social Security and Medicare in order to support more tax cuts for the rich. They’ve said it themselves, repeatedly. All this culture war crap is them just trying to rob our seniors and distract from that fact.
PatriotTakes @patriottakes
2019 Video: Speaker Mike Johnson Wanted to Cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid "Yesterday" Another video resurfaces of the Republican Speaker wanting to cut vital programs earned by Americans
10:40 AM · Nov 4, 2023
We have to be willing to admit reality. Even if we don’t like it. If someone from the Right actually had the evidence to prove their point - I would have to agree with it. They don’t. I’ve given them every chance on Earth to make their case. They can’t.
I don’t assume I know everything and I didn’t already *know* everything I just posted in this article. I had to do the research and discover all of this on my own. Quite often what I discovered, is not anything close to what I had expected. More times than I can count, I’ve had to change my opinion because it didn’t fit the facts. Frankly, that happens almost every day. It’s not about being arrogant and knowing-it-all, it’s actually being humble enough to get it right. Sucking it up and changing your view in the face of hard facts is part of being a grown-up. I have had to find this all out for myself because believe me - the media is not telling anyone about any of this shit. Really, they aren’t.
We have to keep testing our knowledge and understanding. We have to always question if what we already believe is accurate. And we have to be mature enough to accept when something we thought was sacrosanct, is simply not accurate. Because if you don’t - you become susceptible to people telling you what you want to hear. People giving you the answers you wish were true - leading you down a primrose path. That’s when you stop growing, and you STOP LEARNING. That’s when you stop thinking for yourself.
When that happens new information can not enter, because you can’t let go of old information you already have - even when it’s completely wrong. That’s the death of critical thinking, and the death of genuine knowledge.
I believe that this tendency — known as Confirmation Bias — is a natural phenomenon based on how new information is stored by the brain in the hippocampus and has to be transferred into the prefrontal lobe for long-term memory storage — almost everyone does this — so I don’t fault anyone for it, but also that tendency can be defeated if you choose to do so. People can continue to learn and grow wiser if they are willing. Some people simply choose not to bother, and others have learned to take advantage of that.
The GOP wants people to give in to their old beliefs, old habits and old ideas. They want puppets, dangling on a string.
And the GOP rank-and-file are unfortunately more than ready to happily dance for their masters. Until they finally decide not to anymore. Maybe.
You can join me debating the issues and the facts inside the belly of the beast on my Facebook Group: Army for Truth.
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