Category Archives: Law

Duplicity at the Washington Post

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I was planning to name this post “Out-Snarking George Will’s Snark” but in the event, the bigger issue loomed larger. Following Jeff Bezos’ incoherent and logically deficient decision to withhold the endorsement that the editorial staff had prepared, the Post has continued its “both sides are equivalent” approach to what it thinks of as journalism.

The prime example that leapt to mind as the election looms is the continued publication of George Will’s “Opinion” articles. I have no insight as to why the Post has felt for decades now that Mr. Will’s “opinions” have such merit as to warrant regular presentation to what was once the Post’s vast audience. Mr. Will is, we know, a stalwart “conservative,” and a bastion of “conservative thought.” How this came to be I don’t know and don’t much care.

I address this now, on the eve of the most important election in, most likely, the history of the country, because Mr. Will’s latest exercise in verbal chicanery caused a hormonal overload of angst that I am helpless to control. I can exorcise it, if at all, by writing about it. Doing so will not change anything except perhaps bringing my heart rate back to safe levels.

Mr. Will’s “opinion” at issue here is entitled, “Voters face the worst presidential choice in U.S. history.”https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/01/donald-trump-kamala-harris-worst-choice/

One might think that he was both-sides-ing again (“There have been mediocrities and scoundrels in the 59 previous presidential elections. But nothing like this.”), but that would be wrong. Mr. Will’s duplicitous article, presumptively acceptable to the Post that published it, is, properly understood, an endorsement of Donald Trump.

A snarky aside: George Will is 83 years old, older even than I am. The photo accompanying his opinion articles is either Photoshopped or from decades ago. Compare the Getty Images at https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/george-will-columnist or in this idolatrous piece in the National Review wherein Mr. Will is lionized as a “dazzling writer and political thinker.” https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/10/george-f-will-an-appreciation/ Return now to the main point.

Mr. Will’s gift for word play is on full display in this piece: “Why prolong this incineration of the nation’s dignity?” While accurately describing Trump as a “volcano of stray thoughts and tantrums” who is “painfully well known,” he immediately pivots to insulting Kamala Harris by defining her exclusively by “her versatility of conviction” that “means that she might shed her new catechism as blithely as she acquired its progressive predecessor.”

Mr. Will pivots again to attacking the Democratic Party’s “reckless disingenuousness regarding the president’s frailty” followed by “the nimbleness of those without the ballast of seriousness about anything other than hoarding power … foisted on the electorate a Play-Doh candidate. Her manipulators made her malleability into her platform. Prudence is a virtue, so do not fault her handlers for mostly shielding her from public interactions more challenging than interviews with grammar school newspapers.” That is followed by more insults of Tim Walz whose “achievement during his pirouette in the spotlight has been to make his counterpart, JD Vance, resemble Aristotle.” Aristotle? I think not. More like Marcus Junius Brutus who conspired to murder Julius Caesar.

Mr. Will pivots again quickly to undermining Vance: his “stories,” or “fairy tales” claimed to be didactic, “might be if he, a bristling porcupine of certitudes, candidly demarcated his fictions from reality.” Pivot again to stating that Biden and Trump are equally guilty of bad choices of running mates. Mr. Will purports to prove his “both sides are bad” argument by outlining each side’s “pitiless exposure of the candidates’ peculiar promises and reprehensible silences.”

Mr. Will thus compares Trump as “pithy” when promising the impossible to “settle” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 24 hours to Harris as “loquacious” in an interview about the US role in trying to influence events in the Middle East. He says, rightly, that Trump will not state, “Putin is an enemy” and Harris will not defend what he describes as Israel’s “right to fight as fiercely against genocidal enemies next door as the United States fought in World War II against enemies oceans away.”

I interject here if Mr. Will knew a tenth as much as he presumes to know about the Middle East, he could comment with authority. But it’s apparent to me he has either not read Bob Woodward’s new book, War, or simply refuses to understand the inconvenient realities of possibly the most complex political, cultural, ethic, and religious situation in modern history.

Mr. Will pivots again to whining about what he calls “entitlements,” referring to the large sums of my, and your, money withheld from your pay over your lifetime to assure you had a fiscal lifeline in retirement by returning your money to you. Entitlement? Nah. And Medicare, the other subject of Mr. Will’s angst? We might not need it if our health and related insurance systems weren’t such a pathetic joke.

I will here skip over some of Mr. Will’s further distortions of stated positions to the real beauty in this article. He purports to claim that the award for “most embarrassing voice” this year goes to an unnamed “Idaho Republican who, in a public forum, told a Native American to “go back where you came from.” Mr. Will concludes that part with “Let’s do go back to where we come from: the nation’s founding of a limited government.”

Ah! So, there it is. Mr. Will believes “where we came from” as a nation is “the founding of a limited government,” the siren song of the traditional, now long lost in the miasma of Trumpism, “conservative” understanding of what the country is all about and how it got there. Unwittingly, perhaps but likely not, Mr. Will gives us the “big reveal” by failing/refusing to grasp the parts of our national history that inconveniently ignore the “Americans” who were here before us and the abject inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation that failed to produce a national government that could manage even the rudimentary nation that emerged in the immediate aftermath of the American Revolution.

The Articles were the “limited government” of Mr. Will’s fever dreams. They are close to the most likely model for the “government” that Trump/Vance promise to give us and that the Supreme Court has to some extent already ordained as the preferred method of managing our more than 330 million people spread over more than 3.7 million square miles of contiguous territory. Trump/Vance promise to eviscerate the federal government, returning us to the fantasy land of yesteryear when a confederacy of states each of which will be in charge of its own destiny (at least until the next hurricane strikes) and the “United” States will withdraw from most international relationships in favor of an isolationist “America First” that in the past has led straight to war.

Thus, in the end, while purporting to argue that the two presidential candidates of 2024 are deficient in all and mostly mutual respects, Mr. Will ultimately buys into Trump/Vance’s “vision” of a country consisting of 50 separate entities, each acting as its “locals” prefer with a national government populated by political loyalists of the President and free from the inconvenient constraints of the Constitution and criminal laws.

You would think Mr. Will has not read or understood much of American history, modeling Trump’s “don’t tell me, don’t ask me to read it, I already know everything I need to know to benefit me.” Mr. Will’s opening suggestion that both candidates are equivalent and deficient is overwhelmed in the end by his implicit recognition that his historical understanding fits neatly with Trump/Vance’s ravings. Thus, although Mr. Will claims the 2024 candidate have been “greeted … by grimaces from sea to shining sea” (sorry, but I had to include it), in the end only one will be victorious and if it’s Mr. Will’s “favorite among equals,” the nation is in for a disastrous end. See, for example, https://shiningseausa.com/2024/10/25/america-trump-wants-for-you-your-children/ and https://shiningseausa.com/2024/07/02/another-day-that-will-live-in-infamy/

The Strongman Fantasy (And Dictatorship in Real Life)

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Professor Timothy Snyder, an expert in, among other things, the theory and reality of politics and law, has written an extraordinary summary of the result of electing a “strongman” to power. Professor Snyder, the author of, among other works, On Tyranny – Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, wrote this for Substack and encouraged sharing of his thoughts.

Here they are, verbatim but with hyperlinks removed. Pay attention. It may be your last chance.

“Quite a few Americans like the idea of strongman rule.  Why not a dictator who will get things done?

I lived in eastern Europe when memories of communism were fresh.  I have visited regions in Ukraine where Russia imposed its occupation regime.  I have spent decades reading testimonies of people who lived under Nazi or Stalinist rule.  I have seen death pits, some old, some freshly dug. And I have friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes, including political prisoners and survivors of torture. Some of the people I trusted most have been assassinated.

So I think that there is an answer to this question.

Strongman rule is a fantasy.  Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won’t.  In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents.  We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance.  The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing.  We get abused and we get used to it.

Another pleasant illusion is that the strongman will unite the nation.  But an aspiring dictator will always claim that some belong and others don’t.  He will define one group after another as the enemy.  This might feel good, so long as you feel that you are on the right side of the line.  But now fear is the essence of life.  The politics of us-and-them, once begun, never ends.

We dream that a strongman will let us focus on America.  But dictatorship opens our country to the worst the world has to offer.  An American strongman will measure himself by the wealth and power of other dictators.  He will befriend them and compete with them.  From them he will learn new ways to oppress and to exploit his own people.

At least, the fantasy goes, the strongman will get things done.  But dictatorial power today is not about achieving anything positive.  It is about preventing anyone else from achieving anything.  The strongman is really the weak man: his secret is that he makes everyone else weaker.

Unaccountable to the law and to voters, the dictator has no reason to consider anything beyond his own personal interests.  In the twenty-first century, those are simple: dying in bed as a billionaire.  To enrich himself and to stay out of prison, the strongman dismantles the justice system and replaces civil servants with loyalists.

The new bureaucrats will have no sense of accountability.  Basic government functions will break down. Citizens who want access will learn to pay bribes.  Bureaucrats in office thanks to patronage will be corrupt, and citizens will be desperate.  Quickly the corruption becomes normal, even unquestioned.

As the fantasy of strongman rule fades into everyday dictatorship, people realize that they need things like water or schools or Social Security checks.  Insofar as such goods are available under a dictatorship, they come with a moral as well as a financial price.  When you go to a government office, you will be expected to declare your personal loyalty to the strongman.

If you have a complaint about these practices, too bad.  Americans are litigious people, and many of us assume that we can go to the police or sue.  But when you vote a strong man in, you vote out the rule of law.  In court, only loyalism and wealth will matter.  Americans who do not fear the police will learn to do so.  Those who wear the uniform must either resign or become the enforcers of the whims of one man.

Everybody (except the dictator and his family and friends) gets poorer.  The market system depends upon competition.  Under a strongman, there will be no such thing.  The strongman’s clan will be favored by government.  Our wealth inequality, bad enough already, will get worse.  Anyone hoping for prosperity will have to seek the patronage of the official oligarchs. Running a small business will become impossible.  As soon as you achieve any sort of success, someone who wants your business denounces you.

In the fantasy of the strongman, politics vanishes and all is clear and bright.  In fact, a dreary politics penetrates everything.  You can’t run a business without the threat of denunciation.  You can’t get basic services without humiliation.  You feel bad about yourself.  You think about what you say, since it can be used against you later.  What you do on the internet is recorded forever, and can land you in prison.

Public space closes down around you.  You cannot escape to the bar or the bowling alley, since everything you say is monitored.  The person on the next stool or in the next lane might not turn you in, but you have to assume they will.  If you have a t-shirt or a bumper sticker with a message, someone will report you.  Even if you just repeat the dictator’s words, someone can lie about you and denounce you. And then, if you voted for the strongman, you will be confused.  But you should not be.  This is what you voted for.

Denunciation becomes normal behavior.  Without law and voting, denouncing others helps people to feel safe.  Under strongman rule, you cannot trust your colleagues or your friends or even your family.  Political fear not only takes away all public space; it also corrupts all private relationships.  And soon it consumes your thoughts.  If you cannot say what you think, you lose track of what you believe.  You cease to be yourself.

If you have a heart attack and go to the hospital, you have to worry that your name is on a list.  Care of elderly parents is suddenly in jeopardy.  That hospital bed or place in a retirement home is no longer assured.  If you draw attention to yourself, aged relatives will be dumped in the street.  This is not how America works now, but it is how authoritarian regimes always work.

In the strongman fantasy, no one thinks about children.  But fear around children is the essence of dictatorial power.  Even courageous people restrain themselves to protect their children.  Parents know that children can be singled out and beaten up.  If parents step out of line, children lose any chance of going to university, or lose their jobs.

Schools collapse anyway, since a dictator only wants myths that justify his power.  Children learn in school to denounce one another.  Each coming generation must be more tame and ignorant than the prior one.  Time with young children stresses parents.  Either your children repeat propaganda and tell you things you know are wrong, or you worry that they will find out what is right and get in trouble.

In a dictatorship, parents no longer say what they think to their children, because they fear that their children will repeat it in public.  And once parents no longer speak their minds at home, they can no longer create a trusting family.  Even parents who give up on honesty have to fear that their children will one day learn the truth, take action, and get imprisoned.

Once this process begins, it is hard to stop.  At the present stage of the strongman fantasy, people imagine an exciting experiment.  If they don’t like strongman rule, they think, they can just elect someone else the next time.  This misses the point.  If you help a strongman come to power, you are eliminating democracy.  You burn that bridge behind you.  The strongman fantasy dissolves, and real dictatorship remains.

Most likely you won’t be killed or be required to kill. But amid the dreariness of life under dictatorship is dark responsibility for others’ death. By the time the killing starts, you will know that it is not about unity, or the nation, or getting things done. The best Americans, betrayed by you when you cast your vote, will be murdered at the whim and for the wealth of a dictator. Your tragedy will be living long enough to understand this.”

This Is How It’s Done!

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The following is verbatim the published endorsement of Kamala Harris by the Seattle Times:

Hell yes! The Seattle Times edit board endorses Harris for president 

Oct. 29, 2024 at 3:53 pm

The Seattle Times editorial board endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Sept. 1. (Courtesy of the White House)

By Frank Blethen and Kate Riley

Seattle Times publisher and Times editorial page editor

As one of the country’s very few family-owned and -operated metro newspapers left, The Seattle Times is also apparently one of the few whose editorial board is willing to endorse presidential candidates. (For the record, the board, which operates independently of the newsroom, backed Vice President Kamala Harris Sept. 1.)

This is unfathomable, given that the other leading candidate clearly threatens the foundation of our 248-year-old American democracy and the rule of law.

How does it happen that someone as selfish and destructive as former President Donald Trump could actually become our president — again? After he fanned the Jan. 6 insurgency, after his felony convictions and after a civil court ruled he committed sexual assault?

One answer is the demise of local newspapers across our country.

Once the pride of rural communities and big cities alike, about half the country’s daily newspapers have been lost. Too many of the rest are inferior products being milked to death by absent mercenary investors.

Since my great-grandfather, Alden Blethen, founded The Seattle Times in 1896, the Blethen family has proudly guided The Seattle Times. Our current fourth generation has been in control since 1985.

We take our journalism and community service very seriously. We have been preparing our fifth generation for Times leadership when I step down at the end of 2025. And members of the sixth interned in our newsroom this summer.

So it is with consternation that I and editorial page editor Kate Riley learned that the publishers of two of America’s most venerable newspapers on both coasts decided not to weigh in at all, even though their editorial boards were preparing Harris endorsements.

The decisions appear to have been made by the billionaire owners — Jeff Bezos of The Washington Post and Patrick Soon-Shiong of the Los Angeles Times. That prompted protests and resignations at both papers. The reasons given were about political divisions, wanting to let voters make up their own minds and to restore public trust, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.

Bezos, founder of Amazon, explained his decision in an op-ed on the Post’s Opinion page. Read it here: st.news/bezos

“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”

At The Times, we have a wall between the newsroom and the editorial board. Editorial writers do not ask news staff about their opinions, nor do we get involved in their coverage. We do our own reporting.

We were pleased The New York Times joined our editorial board in endorsing Kamala Harris. In fact, NYT Opinion doubled down, making a dramatic statement by filling the front of its Sunday section with just 23 words. In large, bold type, the NYT editorial board made this indictment:

DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE WILL
PROSECUTE HIS ENEMIES
ORDER MASS DEPORTATIONS
USE SOLDIERS AGAINST CITIZENS
ABANDON ALLIES
PLAY POLITICS WITH DISASTERS
BELIEVE HIM.

Trump has become shameless in his pronouncements of his plans and his denouncements of so many Americans. He can only set the country back and put our nation at risk.

The Seattle Times editorial board, and the Blethen family, enthusiastically endorse Kamala Harris.

Frank Blethen; is publisher of The Seattle Times and the great-grandson of the 128-year-old company’s founder. 

Kate Riley; is the editorial page editor at The Seattle Times: kriley@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @k8riley.

No Sale, Mr. Bezos

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Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post has published an “Opinion” piece defending his decision to stop endorsing presidential candidates weeks before the election. The piece was entitled, The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/28/jeff-bezos-washington-post-trust/ He was right about that part at least.

At last look, the article had received more than 15,000 comments and growing rapidly. It has also been reported that since the Post’s announcement there have been more than 200,000 subscription cancellations, about 8 percent of the subscriber base. If so, that number likely continues to grow and may be the real and only reason Bezos has now elected to speak out.

Here was my posted comment on Bezos’ Opinion:

“The reasons for the distrust you cite seem reasonably clear. One, the Trump acolytes bought his nonsense about Fake News from his earliest days in politics. Two, papers like the Post practiced and still practice both-sides-ing critical issues. Just a day or two ago the Post promoted KellyAnne Conway speaking about abortion. You have featured Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley & a multitude of election-denying, deflecting, dishonest Republican hyper-partisans in videos and opinion pieces.

Complaints about these practices have fallen on deaf ears. Now, at the last minute, the Post departs from a practice it has followed since 1976, almost 50 years!, by refusing to endorse the presidential candidate, who, whatever her flaws, is not a convicted criminal, did not attempt to overthrow the government following the last election, and who has not declared, as Trump has, that she will only accept the 2024 outcome if she wins.

Mr. Bezos, your explanation fails on its merits because you haven’t addressed the real issue behind it and the Post’s journalistic practices. If the endorsement doesn’t influence votes, as you suggest, there is no harm in just doing what has been done. Instead, you claim to be following a principle that the paper has failed to follow since Trump emerged from the sludge of America’s lowest politics to be an attractant of attention, however misplaced. If the Post doesn’t stand up for what is right, then it stands for nothing and deserves to die.”

Upon further reflection, there are other issues with the Post owner’s Opinion. One is that the Post has endorsed a multitude of other candidates for federal and state offices. Surely Mr. Bezos is aware of that, yet he ignores it in arguing that endorsements are meaningless or worse because they sow mistrust.

The reality is that mistrust is sown by behaving in an untrustful manner. If I lie constantly, make up false stories, violate the law, demean others in racist and misogynistic ways, refuse to acknowledge science and on and on, I deserve to be distrusted. I have, of course, described Donald Trump and those who worship him. The Post’s owner dissembles when he claims, essentially, that the paper’s endorsement, and presumably therefore the endorsements of every other major paper in America, have no value but to sew distrust. He ignores the many accurate Post stories condemning Trump’s vile politics and establishing beyond a reasonable doubt that he is unfit to serve as President again.

The Post’s owner cannot have it both ways. Sadly, for our country and the world, there are many other examples of distrust that can be cited, many traceable to Trump in one way or another. I refer to the outrageous conflicts of interest of Justice Thomas and his wife, the open flaunting of religious and political bias by Justice Alito and, most recently, the worst decision in the history of the Supreme Court where it’s Trump-appointed justices held that the President of the United States may commit with “absolute immunity” crimes, including attempts to overthrow the government, as long as the crimes are committed in “discussions” with, for example only, the Justice Department. See Trump v United States, decided July 1, 2024, opinion viewable at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

Mr. Bezos’ dissembling cannot excuse or conceal what is going on here. The Post’s decision, delivered on Friday on the eve of the election, was certain to elicit the response it has and yet Mr. Bezos waited until the next Monday to speak out. This may indeed be the death knell for the Post brought about by the arrogance of wealth and indifference or even hostility to the welfare of the nation. If so, too bad. Just another casualty of the cowardice inspired by Donald Trump’s example.

Goodbye, Washington Post

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Reluctantly, I have canceled my subscription to the Washington Post.  This decision is driven by the Post’s decision to change its long-standing policy of endorsing candidates for the office of President of the United States in this, the most consequential election perhaps in the entire history of the country but certainly in modern times. The Post‘s decision to do this less than two weeks before the election is an egregious act of cowardice or, worse, malice, in that it must surely know that its decision can only help Donald Trump’s quest to become dictator of the United States. I cannot, will not, condone such a heinous act. So it is written, so let it be done.

No One Rules If No One Obeys

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Reading about the disgusting decisions of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post to withhold endorsements of presidential candidates at the behest of their billionaire owners, I was reminded of a meme I saw on, as I recall, Facebook. On the left was the face of a police officer and on the right the Guy Fawkes mask associated with Anonymous. Wikipedia describes Anonymous as

a decentralized group of anonymous online activists … a label used by high-profile hackers to make themselves unrecognizable to law enforcement as well as the public. They are associated with many online and offline protests. These protests commonly relate to freedom of speech. They often protest against … censorship.

Their tagline: “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”

The meme was posted during the disruptions arising from the murder of George Floyd.

The message is apt now, especially as I read the pablum-like statement published by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein describing the Post’s decision as “surprising and disappointing.” I have only read of one resignation so far, Robert Kagan, the editor-at-large. Others are likely considering a similar step. I say: DON’T RESIGN! Not yet.

This is not the time to yield to the fascist forces of darkness without a fight.

The Post is likely dead as a journalistic force and hopefully also as a viable economic entity. Many subscribers are canceling their relationship with the paper. Ironically, I had just received an email from the Post advising of the auto-renewal next month of my own subscription. Not a chance. If the Post wants to be Fox-light, I have no interest in reading it.

Jeff Bezos’ compromise of the Post’s editorial independence will, I believe, justly be met with the destruction of his investment. He may not care, given his wealth, but his decision to align the Post with Donald Trump, and make no mistake – that is what has happened – will lead to massive disaffection of readers and, one hopes, advertisers.

So, what to do? Instead of resigning, the remaining staff of the Post should publish the paper’s endorsement of the Harris/Walz ticket as it had planned. Just do it! Force Bezos’ hand. He may fire you, but your chances of long-term employment at the Post are slim at best in the face of its journalistic suicide. So, DO NOT OBEY. RESIST! Publish the endorsement.

If Bezos starts firing staff, walk out together and leave the ashes of this once great newspaper for Bezos to clean up. With no employees, he can’t produce a newspaper in hard copy or online. Refuse to be the fake news that Donald Trump has always accused you of and stand for what is right before it is too late. And, one hopes, the union(s) representing the Post’s staff will bring suits against the company and the people behind the decision to destroy the paper’s editorial independence while maintaining the now-ludicrous slogan that Democracy Dies in Darkness. The Darkness is here in the form of Donald Trump and everything he represents. In the words made famous by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas: “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

The America Trump Wants for You & Your Children

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Meidas+ (meidastouch@substack.com) published a list of 200 reasons to vote against Donald Trump. The list was originally created by Mark Jacob, former editor at the Chicago Tribune, author, and writer of the newsletter Stop The Presses. It contains many duplications. I have reorganized and supplemented the list. None of these points is in doubt. None.

Iif this is the country you want to live in and that you want your children and grandchildren to live in, vote for Trump/Vance. You will be doing so knowing that Trump plans to turn the United States into a gulag-ridden hellscape for everyone and particularly for women and children. You will know that the United States will no longer support action to control climate change.

Consider that if Trump attempts to execute his plan for the country, and there is every reason to think he will, can you reasonably expect the Russian government under the thumb of dictator Vladimir Putin to just sit quietly by and send Trump a congratulatory cake? Can you reasonably expect America’s current allies in NATO and elsewhere around the world to just say, “well, OK, no worries, the US is destroyed as a democracy, but we’re still fully aligned?” Historically, isolationist policies have led the United States into wars. If Trump wins, Russia will overrun Ukraine, and the NATO allies will be next.

Consider the implications of the dismantling of the federal system of Cabinet-level departments and administrative agencies responsible for implementing the multitude of laws enacted by Congress. Trump says he going to “shut down,” among others, the Department of Education.

Consider the implications of replacing the federal workforce with people whose primary “skill” is unquestioning obedience to whatever Trump decides he wants any given day. Here is the list of some of Trump’s past conduct showing that he is an existential threat to the nation:

  1. Trump incited a deadly assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; he has resisted every effort at accountability; the Supreme Court has held that he is above the law when, for example, he tries to compel the Justice Department to support his false claims of a stolen election. Trump will not accept defeat in 2024.
    • Trump pushed the fake-electors scheme to overturn a fair election, knowing the scheme had no lawful basis. He knew it and every Republican who still supports knew and knows it.
    • Trump lied that there were “205,000 more ballots than you had voters” in PA.
    • Trump lied that “the entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED!”
    • Trump falsely accused 2 Georgia election workers of election fraud – the same allegations that led to a $148M judgment vs. Rudy Giuliani.
    • In late 2020,  Trump delayed transition talks with the Biden team even though the stonewalling hurt public health efforts during a pandemic.
    • Trump’s coup attempt projected such instability that Gen. Mark Milley assured his Chinese counterpart that the U.S. planned no attack. This infuriated Trump, who suggested Milley deserved execution: “In times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”
    • Trump plans to pardon the rioters who beat up police officers at the Capitol.
    • Trump did nothing but watch for 187 minutes as his followers stormed the Capitol.
    • Trump spread false claims that mail-in voting would lead to massive fraud, even though it’s been used safely for decades.
    • Trump repeatedly lied about voter fraud to undermine confidence in the 2020 election.
    • Trump tried to overturn the election results by pressuring Georgia officials to “find” votes in his favor.
    • Trump tried to use the Department of Justice as his personal legal defense team, undermining the rule of law.
    • Trump pushed baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including claims of rigged voting machines.
    • Trump repeatedly undermined the credibility of U.S. elections, a cornerstone of democracy.
    • Trump attempted to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service ahead of the 2020 election to disrupt mail-in voting.

2. Trump’s extremist justices took away women’s right to control their own bodies.

3. Trump wants more huge tariff increases, which are a tax on American consumers; the Tax Foundation estimates loss of more than 684,000 full-time equivalent jobs as result.

4. Trump stole top secrets, lied about what he had, refused to return them, and left them exposed to unauthorized viewers in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.

5. Trump bragged about grabbing the private parts of women he’d just met. Trump regards women as property.

6. Trump called for a “day of violence” in which police could do whatever they wanted with no accountability.

7. Trump threatens mass deportation of undocumented immigrants – imagine what will happen when many resist and others come to their aid. Read this: https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/twelve-million-deportations?r=4gbf6r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

8. Trump called his opponents “vermin,” echoing hate speech from the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwanda massacre.

9. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. He means to give the oil companies and others free rein to destroy the climate. Read this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/17/oil-industry-trump-climate-lobbying/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3f56fd8%2F6712886b1ab9a5507

10. Trump said his next administration would give a major health policy role to anti-vaxxer RFK Jr., a disturbed person who dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park and cut off the head of a dead whale with a chainsaw and strapped it to the roof of his minivan.

    • Trump’s lies and incompetence likely led to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths from Covid-19.
    • Trump lied publicly that Covid-19 was “like a regular flu that we have flu shots for” while he privately said it was “more deadly than even your strenuous flu.” He continued lying throughout the worst of the pandemic, claiming repeatedly that COVID “will just go away.”
    • Trump suggested that putting light in people’s bodies and injecting them with disinfectant could kill Covid.
    • After the right demonized Anthony Fauci, Trump claimed not to know who gave Fauci a presidential commendation. It was Trump.
    • Trump secretly shipped Covid test equipment to Putin when it was needed in the U.S.
    • Trump downplayed the importance of wearing masks during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to unnecessary deaths.
    • Trump undermined pandemic relief efforts by refusing to sign stimulus bills until they included unrelated demands.
    • Trump downplayed the threat of Covid-19 despite knowing how dangerous it was.
    • Trump pressured governors to reopen their states during the Covid-19 pandemic against public health advice.
    • Trump’s administration ignored early warnings about the Covid-19 pandemic, delaying critical responses.

11. Trump helped the Saudis cover up the murder and dismemberment of a U.S.-based journalist.

12. Trump wants to use the military to put down “the enemy from within” – meaning anyone who opposes his agenda.

13. Trump lied that “Dems want to shut your churches down, permanently.”

14. Trump’s administration separated migrant children from their parents and then lost track of the parents. They didn’t and don’t care.

15. Trump increased the national debt by 39% in just 4 years while giving the rich a big tax cut.

16. Trump had to pay $2 million in a lawsuit over the Trump Foundation’s misuse of charity funds.

17. On 9/11, Trump bragged that the fall of the Twin Towers meant his building was NYC’s tallest. That’s all he was concerned about.

18. Trump touted his business acumen but couldn’t make a profit from casinos and filed for bankruptcy six times.

19. Trump threatened to withdraw the U.S. from NATO, a key alliance for global stability. Next time, he’ll do it.

20. Trump made false statements more than 30,000 times as President.

21. rump lied that an “extremely credible source” told him Obama’s birth certificate was fake. After years of pushing the birtherism hoax, Trump admitted it was bunk — and he blamed it on Hillary Clinton.

22. Trump took Putin’s word over the word of U.S. intel agencies regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.

23. Trump insulted Gold Star parents whose son, a U.S. soldier, had been killed in Iraq. The family was Muslim.

24. A court found Trump and his adult sons liable for business fraud and canceled the Trump Organization’s business certification.

25. After a MAGA supporter massacred Latinos in El Paso, Trump and his wife went to the city and used a newly orphaned baby as a prop for a photo op.

26. Trump lied that “we’re the highest taxed nation in the world.”

27. Trump lied by tweet in 2019: “Today I opened a major Apple Manufacturing plant in Texas.” In fact, the plant had opened nearly 6 years earlier.

28. Trump lied when making the absurd claim that people weren’t allowed to say “Merry Christmas” until he came along.

29. Trump denounced 4 women in Congress who are members of minority groups, telling them to go back where they came from, even though 3 were born here and the 4th immigrated as a child.

30. Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Trump wanted to shoot social justice protesters. “We reached that point in the conversation where he looked frankly at Gen. Milley and said, ‘Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?'”

31. Trump lied that the strategic oil reserve was “mostly empty” and that he filled it. In fact, the reserve was lower at the end of his term than at the start.

32. Trump overruled experts to give a security clearance to Jared Kushner, who later leveraged his access to get $2B from the Saudis.

33. Trump is a racist bigot. He said in 1991: “I have black guys counting my money. … I hate it. The only guys I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes all day.”

34. Trump said in 2015 he favored the creation of a database to track all Muslims in the U.S.

35. Trump asked in 2016 if women should be charged with a crime for having an abortion despite a ban, he said: “The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.”

36. Trump defended Putin in 2015: “Nobody’s proven that he’s killed anybody.”

37. In 2016, he called for not only killing terrorists but killing their family members, too.

38. Trump invited Russians into the Oval Office and shared classified information.

39. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, was convicted of 17 tax crimes, including conspiracy and falsifying business records.

40. Trump called for government crackdowns on MSNBC and CBS because he didn’t like their coverage of him.

41. Trump’s pardon got Steve Bannon out of federal fraud charges in a “build the wall” scam. Right-wing disinformation is Bannon’s game: “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh*t.”

42. Trump praised Hungarian despot Viktor Orban as “one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world.”

43. A Trump golf club put up a marker about a “River of Blood” at a Civil War battle that supposedly took place there. But no such battle occurred. It’s a lie.

44. Several Trump golf clubs displayed a Time magazine cover featuring him. You guessed it: It’s fake.

45. Trump pardoned Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of ignoring a court order to stop profiling Latinos.

46. Trump lied about Mika Brzezinski’s husband/co-host: “When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so.”

47. Trump hired Kellyanne Conway as a professional liar, and she fulfilled that role, saying early in the pandemic that Covid was “contained,” calling lies “alternative facts” and referring to a terrorist attack that never happened: the “Bowling Green Massacre.”

48. Trump praised China’s dictator Xi Jinping as “brilliant” and “strong like granite.”

49. Trump quit the Iran nuclear deal, raising the chances of nuclear war.

50. Trump told his Cabinet that the Soviet Union was justified in invading Afghanistan in 1979.

51. After former Klan leader David Duke endorsed him for president, Trump said: “I don’t know David Duke. … I just don’t know anything about him.” But researchers found video clips showing Trump talking about Duke on national TV multiple times.

52. Trump refused to attend his successor’s inauguration, becoming the first president to boycott the transition since Andrew Johnson in 1869.

53. Trump tore up official documents, forcing aides to tape them together to preserve them as required by federal law.

54. Trump endorsed NC gov candidate Mark Robinson, a Holocaust denier who called Obama a “top-ranking demon” and said, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.”

55. Trump’s social-media Christmas wish for his opponents: “May they rot in hell.”

56. Trump used the South Lawn of the White House for a partisan event, ignoring precedent and propriety, when he gave his 2020 Republican National Convention speech there.

57. Trump, asked about QAnon, the conspiracy cult that claims JFK Jr. is still alive and Democrats kidnap children to harvest their blood, said: “I don’t know much about the movement other than I understand that they like me very much, which I appreciate.”

58. Trump lied that U.S. Steel was building 6, 7, 8, or 9 new plants (the number varied). But the company built no new plants.

59. Asked about charges for Ghislaine Maxwell for conspiring with sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, Trump said: “I wish her well, frankly.”

60. Trump lied that he received “the highly honored Bay of Pigs award” from Cuban Americans in Florida. There’s no such award.

61. After a 75-year-old social justice protester in Buffalo, NY, was shoved to the ground by police and suffered a fractured skull, Trump suggested it was a “set-up” by “an antifa provocateur.” Trump tweeted that the activist “fell harder than [he] was pushed.”

62. Trump lied that Obama spied on his campaign.

63. Trump said: “We will be ending the AIDS epidemic shortly in America and curing childhood cancer very shortly.”

64. Trump’s Agriculture Dept. ordered staff to stop referring to “climate change” and call it “weather extremes” instead.

65. Trump is selling watches, crypto, and sneakers. Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bibles were printed in China.

66. Credible evidence indicates that Egypt gave Trump’s campaign a $10M bribe.

67. Trump opened most of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging and other development, removing protections for a temperate rainforest. Biden reversed the move.

68. He claimed to have built hundreds of miles of new border wall, but most of it was just repairs to existing sections.

69. Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. would lose its energy independence under Biden, even though the U.S. was energy independent before and after his presidency.

70. Trump hosted super-spreader events during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to multiple outbreaks.

71. Trump tried to block the publication of a book by his niece, Mary Trump, which described his unfit mental state and corrupt behavior.

72. Trump repeatedly attacked the media, calling them the “enemy of the people” and undermining free speech.

73. Trump refused to condemn white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys, telling them instead to “stand back and stand by.”

74. Trump refused to release his tax returns, breaking decades of tradition and transparency.

75. Trump pressured foreign governments, including Ukraine, to investigate his political rivals, leading to his impeachment.

76. Trump mocked a reporter with a disability during a campaign rally, showing a lack of basic decency.

77. Trump refused to support measures to protect against Russian interference in U.S. elections.

78. Trump repeatedly violated the Hatch Act by using government resources for political purposes.

79. He ignored intelligence reports about Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

80. Trump’s administration rolled back environmental protections, contributing to climate change and pollution.

81. Trump lied that U.S. troops voted overwhelmingly for him, when military ballots showed otherwise.

82. Trump endorsed violence against protesters, saying “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

83. Trump withdrew from the World Health Organization during a global pandemic, weakening international cooperation.

84. Trump promoted unproven Covid-19 treatments like hydroxychloroquine, which endangered public health.

85. Trump repeatedly lied about his administration’s accomplishments, including jobs created and trade deals made.

86. Trump ordered the violent removal of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so he could stage a photo-op with a Bible.

87. Trump insulted John McCain, a decorated war hero, saying he prefers “people who weren’t captured.”

88. Trump downplayed the severity of climate change, reversing policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

89. Trump called for imprisoning political rivals, a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.

90. Trump’s reckless foreign policy decisions alienated key allies and damaged the U.S.’s reputation globally.

Book Announcement

1 Reply


 

 

 

I am delighted to announce the publication of Not to Yield, a two-volume compilation of essays adapted from my blog at http://shiningseausa.com and, to a lesser extent, my retired blog at AutumnInNewYork.net.

This is most important: I do not expect you to buy the book because you know me.

If you are interested, please do buy it, but I will never ask. You owe me no explanation of your decision. Similarly, if you are offended by the contents, I’m sorry for that but the book, in addition to being a political and legal history, is replete with my opinions about many subjects. They are my opinions, and that’s that. I have explained the basis for them in, I hope, every case. If you agree, wonderful. If not, you are entitled to. This is the United States, after all. At least for now. One thing seems certain: if Trump loses the election, he will not accept the loss and just retire quietly to Mar-a-Lago. Many of the essays in this book will remain instructive for some time to come.

How to buy Not to Yield”
 
The books are now available at Barnes & Noble:

For Volume One: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/not-to-yield-paul-m-ruden/1146438480?ean=9798823034661

For Volume Two: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/not-to-yield-paul-m-ruden/1146448160?ean=9798823034685

You may qualify for a Member Discount and Free Shipping.

If you prefer to buy from the publisher, here is the AuthorHouse website:

For Volume One: https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/863010-not-to-yield
For Volume Two: https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/863011-not-to-yield

There may be shipping and handling charges.

In the relatively near future, they will be available through Amazon, among others. If you want to know when that occurs, state so in a comment  and I will advise at the appropriate time.

The e-book version of the volumes will also be available in the near future on the AuthorHouse website, as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, for a lower price and useable on any e-platform. If e-books are your thing, you may wish to wait. In all events, if you buy it/them, I hope the reading will be stimulating and thought-provoking. Remember that experience (history) keeps a dear school …. [Ben Franklin]

If you think you might want to read some of the essays but not all (each volume is long), you may want to consider buying the book, reading what you like, and donating the books to a local library, perhaps for a tax deduction.

To assist in deciding whether you want to buy one or both volumes, I have set out below a list of the main chapters, each of which usually has multiple essays within it.

From the Back Cover:

“This raw, provocative book of essays adapted from the blog ShiningSeaUSA pulls back the curtain on the Trump presidency, providing a panoramic view of his turbulent time in office, the legal implications of his actions, and the inactions of those surrounding him, enabling him, or standing by. The book includes memoir about life in New York City, legal analyses of major political developments since Donald Trump emerged, deep dives into what went wrong in the Mueller investigation, Trump’s mishandling of the COVID pandemic, and the threat to American democracy from Trump, the Republican Party he has captured, and the “conservative” Supreme Court. Not to Yield exposes the corruption and incompetence that dominated Trump’s presidency, his denial of his 2020 election loss, the January 6 attack on the Capitol and Trump’s attempt to return to power, all observed through a legal lens that spotlights blatant disregard for the law of the land and our democratic system.”

Chapters Volume One: Chapters Volume Two:

 
1 NEW YORK CITY MEMORIES 16 TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY 2017

 
2 PEOPLE 17 TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY 2018
3 CLIMATE, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, & SOCIETY 18 TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY 2019

 
4 CONGRESS 19 TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY 2020
5 DEMOCRACY 20 PANDEMIC 2020
6 LAW & COURTS 21 ELECTION 2020
7 TERRORISM 22 TRUMP IN 2021
8 MEDIA 23 TRUMP IN 2022
9 REPUBLICAN POLICY 24 TRUMP IN 2023

 
10 GUNS IN AMERICA 25 ELECTION 2024

 
11 POLICING IN AMERICA
12 RACISM & MYSOGNY
13 ELECTION 2016
14 MUELLER REPORT
15 TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY 2016

Inflation – Who is Responsible?

2 Replies

Republicans say it’s President Biden. With their usual remote relationship with “truth,” they blame the current President for gas and grocery prices. They are not much interested in complex explanations of post-pandemic supply chains, the continuing power of the Middle Eastern oil producers, or anything beside the facile narrative that “it’s Biden.” Now, of course, they have to shift targets to Kamala Harris, which is proving difficult.

For those who still have functioning minds, it’s interesting to look at some facts.

GAS PRICES

Reuters reported in February 2024 that Exxon Mobil posted a better-than-expected $36 billion profit for 2023. That same month the Statista Research Department reported that Chevron Corporation’s net income in 2023 was $21.37 billion.

Here are the top 15 in 2023 as reported by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):

Exxon Mobil               $36 billion

Chevron                       $21.37

Shell                              $19.36

Total Energies              $21.38

Conoco Phillips            $10.96

Valero Energy                 $9.15

BP                                    $15.24

Phillips 66                        $7.02

EOG Resources              $7.59

Cheniere                         $9.90

Pioneer                            $4.89

Occidental                        $3.77

Diamondback                  $3.34

Marathon                          $1.45

Hess                                   $1.38

TOTAL                       $172,813,000,000

That’s just shy of $173 BILLION in profits in one year.

Source: Natural Resources Defense Council  https://tinyurl.com/h7ku2x9z

Hard as it may be to believe, those numbers represent a decline from 2022. Per the New York Times, “The companies’ earnings were down from the bonanza year of 2022, when a surge in prices pushed up profits, but were otherwise the strongest in recent history.” Oil Giants Pump Their Way to Bumper Profits https://tinyurl.com/38zs2eb2

If you’re also wondering how prices are set at the pump and what explains the variation, often substantial, between gas stations only a block apart, I can’t help you. Most of the online sources I have reviewed argue that the pump price is simply a result of supply and demand. That claim may be true, but it makes no sense to me in casual observation of prices and price changes where I have lived and traveled. Moreover, I have seen almost instant price changes occur at the pump at nearby stations following announcements of OPEC price fixing changes for oil produced in the Middle East. This seems inconsistent with the supply-demand concept since the per-barrel prices set by OPEC do not relate to gas delivered to the pumps the very next day.

DRUG PRICES

Ranking of 20 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world by annual profit and profit per second (31,536,000 seconds in a 365-day year):

    1. Pfizer $31.37 billion ($995)
    2. Johnson & Johnson $17.94 billion ($569)
    3. Merck $14.52 billion ($460)
    4. Roche $13.00 billion ($412)
    5. AbbVie $11.84 billion ($375)
    6. BioNTech $10.34 billion ($328)
    7. Sanofi $8.80 billion ($279)
    8. Novo Nordisk $8.80 billion ($270)
    9. Moderna $8.36 billion ($265)
    10. Novartis $7 billion ($222)
    11. Amgen $6.55 billion ($208)
    12. Bristol-Myers Squibb $6.33 billion ($201)
    13. Eli Lilly $6.25 billion ($198)
    14. Abbott $5.80 billion ($184)
    15. GSK $5.30 billion ($168)
    16. AstraZeneca $4.70 billion ($149)
    17. Gilead Sciences $4.59 billion ($146)
    18. Bayer $4.40 billion ($140)
    19. Regeneron $4.34 billion ($138)
    20. Merck KgaA $3.50 billion ($111)

            TOTAL   $183.73 billion ($5826)

That’s just shy of $184 BILLION in profits in one year [2022, latest I could find] Source: The Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies in the World Ranked by Profit per Second https://tinyurl.com/42cjhjn6

If you’re wondering where all that money went, you get a good idea from reporting by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee:

https://tinyurl.com/4enwp4dt

One explanation of all this may be read at CorporateWatch.org: VACCINE CAPITALISM: FIVE WAYS BIG PHARMA MAKES SO MUCH MONEY  https://tinyurl.com/3f4fhhpa

I understand the argument that the Pharmas do a lot of research/development that does not lead to marketable outcomes, BUT that money is already accounted for in the final profit figures. Stated differently, research/development costs are in the expense side of the calculus that NETS the profits in the chart. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know in detail what a normal day looks like for managements at, say, Merck that warrants compensation of $60.5 million in one year?

GROCERIES

 According to Forbes, groceries are 30 percent more costly now than four years ago, Why Your Groceries Are Still So Expensive https://tinyurl.com/4245t4kb

While noting that “industry leveraged pandemic-related supply chain crises to raise prices and reap enormous profits, all while selling less food,” Forbes, of course, blames this on an “’ongoing policy failure by the Biden Administration.” I will return to that claim in a bit.

Forbes’ analysis of food price inflation states the following:

The U.S. grocery industry is a $1.03 trillion behemoth. According to data shared … by NIQ, across all grocery categories in all channels of trade, prices are up nearly 30% since 2019, while unit volumes are flat. What does this mean? Average shoppers are spending more money and coming home with less food. And Ozempic has nothing to do with it.

Despite the illusion of variety, most grocery categories are dominated by a handful of consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies that own troves of familiar brand names.

Soft drinks provide a textbook example of CPG domination. The top 3 companies, Coca-Cola, Pepsico and Keurig Dr. Pepper, control around 90% of the soda market. Overall, soda sales are up 56%, unit volumes are down 2% and prices are up 59%. In Q1 2023 for example, Coca-Cola prices were up 9%, and Pepsico prices were up 16%, while unit volumes were down 2%. Pepsico more recently posted a 21% rise in operating profit to $970 million, with a 6% volume decline after double-digit price increases for 7 consecutive quarters – nearly 2 whole years. As an executive bluntly stated, “I still think we’re capable of taking whatever pricing we need.”

Kraft Heinz dominates the packaged cheese category at 65% market share. Category unit volumes are up just 6%, while prices are up 21%. That is exactly the intention. “We are not going to be chasing volume,” according to the Kraft Heinz CEO, “We’re going to be looking to drive profitable volume.”

In 2022-2023 Kraft Heinz profits skyrocketed from $225 million to $887 million, an increase of 448%. Gross profit margins reached 34%, up 400BP over Q3 2022.

Similarly, chocolate candy sales are up 34%, unit volumes are down 8% and prices are up 46%. The top 3 companies, including Hershey’s, Mondelez and Mars, possess over 80% market share. Hershey’s CEO said in 2022, “Pricing will be an important lever for us this year and is expected to drive most of our growth.” Hershey’s saw a 62% increase in profits in 2021. Hershey’s 30 brands control at least 46% of the candy category.

Top 10 price increase and volume trends across all grocery channels, 2019-2023. Data Courtesy of … [+] ERROL SCHWEIZER

Boxed cereal dollar sales are up 17%, unit volumes are down 12% and prices are up 33%. The top 3 brands, General Mills, Kellogg’s, and Post Holdings possess over 70% market share. “It’s been surprising how resilient the consumer really is,” stated Kellogg’s Chief Executive Steve Cahillane in 2022, without a hint of irony.

Beef demand is highly elastic. As prices go up, volumes go down. According to NIQ, beef unit volumes are down 14%. Prices have gone through the roof, up over 50% in just 4 years. The average beef price per pound is now over $7. So it wasn’t Impossible Burger or cultivated lab meat that killed demand. And no wonder. The top 4 meat processors hold around 50% market share. Tyson Foods doubled its profits from 2021-2022, dryly stating in an earnings call, “Our pricing actions, which partially offset the higher input costs, led to higher sales during the quarter.”

Diaper unit volumes are down 11.7% while prices are up 38%, to over $13 a pack. Proctor & Gamble (P&G) and Kimberly Clark control 70% of the domestic diaper industry. P&G prices have stayed high while lower input costs drove 33% of their profits. The brand predicted an $800 million windfall, and an executive recently mentioned, “We continue to believe that the majority of that growth will be price driven with a negative volume component.”

Multiple other product lines show the same pattern of reduced sales volumes accompanied by much larger percentage price increases: milk, yogurt, fresh potatoes, potato chips. The yogurt industry concentration (four firms with aggregate 70 percent of market) resembles the airline industry where four firms have about 70 percent of sales. And, according to Forbes reporting of NielsenIQ data, increases in prices of base ingredients are lower than the increases for processed commodities made from those ingredients.

Price inflation takes other forms than straight-up increases – package sizes are often reduced while price is held constant (called “shrinkflation”). Data also exists showing that corporate profits (income after accounting for expenses) accounted for more than half of inflation.

While media and large companies often assign blame for inflation on consumer demand and workers demanding higher pay, Forbes shows that “corporate profits as a share of the national income are at historic highs, while workers’ share is lower than before the pandemic.” And, “Wall Street profit rates are the highest since World War II and stock buybacks are at record highs.” A good argument exists on the known facts that the largest concentrated industries are taking advantage of the pandemic and its aftermath to extract monopoly profits from consumers.

Instances of suppliers withholding product from uncooperative retailers refusing price pass-throughs are strong evidence of the effects of market concentration. Only firms with market power can successfully withhold product from the market without loss of business.

Finally, for present purposes, energy cost inflation, driven by multiple largely uncontrollable factors, are running persistently higher than general inflation. https://www.vox.com/technology/366885/utility-power-bill-price-clean-energy

Returning to the question whether price inflation is chargeable to the government, the Forbes article suggests Congress could act, along with the USDA and FTC, all targets of Republican angst over government overreach and the “deep state.” There are statutory tools available, for sure, but using them effectively in the face of massive Republican resistance is not a hopeful path to a solution and would in any case consume many years of litigation. Recall the hysterical Republican response to the budgeted increase in IRS staffing which, properly understood, would have resulted in hiring more staff over several years and largely made up for historical reductions in staff that have impaired collection work and return processing. And it certainly would not have led, as Republicans claimed, to armed IRS agents shooting people over tax obligations.

The Congress as currently constituted is not going to cooperate in any legislative efforts to further regulate large American businesses. And the Supreme Court has eviscerated one of the main supportive legal principles (“Chevron deference”) that enabled federal agencies to act aggressively under general legislative authorities to regulate highly-concentrated industries that are responsible for most of the inflation.