They also haven't passed any significant legislation with the house majority. They have nothing to campaign on except the border and Trump.

I do think it is important, but the grocery prices are still high, especially in certain segments. Like meat across the board, but especially beef. Many things are never going back down, and some still feel like they are way overpriced.

I am still waiting for their jan 6 commission where they show us Antifa, black life matters, the cia and nancy pelosi were behind it all.

Mike Johnson is still blurring out the faces to protect the innocent.

President biden just called out grocery chains to lower prices, Don't think there's anything he can do but call them out though:


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/u...od-prices.html

I know there isn't. Presidents get blamed for things that they have no control over. That is not likely to change anytime soon. Heck, I was just watching a Lefty talking about how there as a Nazi rally in "Biden's America." As if he formed it.

I think food sellers, retail and wholesale, are all happy with the situation. Those prices that were justifiable(?) at one time are giving them high profits now with their costs going down but not being passed on to the consumer. It won't change as long as nobody rocks the boat.

I don't think it's collusion (backroom agreements, setting prices) but stores around here aren't even trying to be competitive with each other like they used to. Holiday ads were crap, the usual loss leaders to get customers in were simply not there. Some of this is do to the store and some to the lack of allowances from the producers of goods. It only takes one company or chain to break the "truce", but right now they're all happy as they watch the bank accounts grow.

I'm not sure how, if, or when that cycle gets broken?

Interestingly Wegmans has a commercial out now about lowering prices.

Aren't things largely boiled down to just Walmart and Kroger at this point?

(Yes, I know Publix exists, in some places anyway.

I'm in Albertson's country - some things are just stupid expensive, but, I've found it easier to find really good sale prices just the last few weeks.

It's also nice to be a household member of a Whole Foods employee so we get 20% off everything there, and real time knowledge of the deals they have.

Don't know about large states, but in Iowa? No.

Talk is cheap and if he cared about fixing the high prices, he could go after companies for anti-competitive actions and price fixing. We already know the egg industry was doing it.

How do we know that the egg companies are doing it?

There's just a handful of big companies now who go out of their way not to compete with each other. Turning into the telecom industry.

Their numbers showed they lied about supply issues and they keep losing lawsuits over it.

Eggs range from $1.30'ish to $3+. Kroger & Publix brand eggs are good enough, don't have to pay extra for cage/range free eggs. I know you can see the difference, and might help your conscience, but doubt you can taste the difference. Overall, I've not been affected that much by grocery prices. There are plenty of brand name stuff that goes on sale to keep me happy.

The biggie for me are restaurant prices. Those don't seem to come down. Entrees that used to be $12-$14 are now $16-$18+. And college prices, would love for Joe to do something about that.

Heck, even prices for everyday cars (Corollas, Camrys, Accords) are coming back down to MSRP or below levels.

link?

*cries in Chicago*

Molson, can I be adopted?

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https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/23/high...up-claims.html

reuters.com

I took my son to Five Guys for lunch the other day. He got a plain hamburger, small fries, and a shake.

$23

Wendys is now like $12 for a meal. Feels like you could get one for $7-$8 a few years ago. Even Taco Bell is expensive and that place was perfect for tons of food for like $10.

Yeah. Like a lot of families we eat fast food a couple nights a week sometimes because of the timing of kids activities and wifes travel schedule. Just to feed my 13 and 10 year old and usually a Diet Coke for me (I don't do fast food except occasionally breakfast) it is easily in the $20-$23 range.

5 guys prices went through the roof with the pandemic and haven't come down. We've been trying cut back on eating out, especially doordash, because prices are getting out of hand.

I was curious about location differences, so I went & looked.

Same pricing within about $1 here IF you mean their standard Hamburger (which is a double)

If he got the "Little Hamburger" (which is a single) then the difference would be about $3.50 or so lower here.

That's a semi-frequent discussion here for several years now, dating back to at least Will's entire time in Miami. Once you get beyond the basic tacos, they get expensive in a hurry.

And with the new (to here, ymmv) surcharge of $0.49 per taco to add just basic onions, I can now actually get 3 tacos cheaper from 2-3 sit-down mexican restaurants in the area.

Though, to be fair about that, none of those really hit like TB tacos if you're in a certain mood

There was a time in college where you could go home with a grocery bag filled with Taco Bell tacos for like $20. It was the greatest poor college student restaurant that ever existed. McDonalds dollar menu up there as well. Tough to beat a $0.99 double cheeseburger which I don't think they even changed till like 5 years ago.

Now a quesadilla is near $7 near me.

FWIW

I know we are saving a ton of money not eating out. I get work gets in the way, but I've learn some pretty easy recipes from YT. I really wish we had cooked more when the kids were younger, too much fast food BS.

If you aren't too fussy with your food, don't expect perfection, and don't mind improvising some, do more home cooking.

Going to try some Garlic Naan this weekend!

The savings in $ is overwhelmed mightily here by the cost in time, patience, and aggravation.

I am (and have been for several years honestly) "I prefer mayo on my sandwich ... but that'd require me to get out the mayo, put it back, and dirty a knife that'll need to be washed ... so it ain't worth it" years old

Squeezable bottles, Jon.

... and dishwasher. Or just use paper plates and plastic cutlery.

I never kept track of food budget properly but I'm going to say that I'm easily saving 50% by not eating out much ... and I'm not as fat!

I caught the end of an Applebee's commercial, so I didn't quite catch the whole pitch, but I think that the gist of it was "Now that fast food is as expensive as Applebee's, come enjoy a sit down meal"

And I thought that was a really smart pitch

Those suckers never have seemed to work right once you're past halfway or so.

I mean, mustard bottles handle it pretty well. But the mayo in the bottles?
I guess it's the thickness or something.

*this is actually a familiar topic on my FB wall. I know a guy who rails against bottled mayo the way I rail against, I dunno, self checkout or something.

Funny you bring that up. This discussion caused me to ponder the last time I used an actual plate -- i.e. non-styrofaom -- here.

I think it was Christmas.

Yeah, my son has complained to me in the past about not getting mayo in a squeeze bottle. I'm perfectly happy with a jar. I can go at that with either a knife, an iced tea spoon, or even a rubber spatula if I need to get the last bit out.

As for dishes, we burn through four cat bowls a day, so the dishwasher has to run regularly enough that dirty utensils aren't an issue. (Dishes have LONG been my chore, because either nobody else will do them or nobody else will load the washer right.)

Applebee's is actually quite a good value anymore. There burgers are pretty good as well.

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I don't know much about 5 guys but he is almost 14 so I'll assume it was a standard burger.

Applebee’s rolls out Date Night Pass, giving people 52 meals over the next year for $200 | Fortune

It is all based around activities for us and wife travelling. She has 8 straight weeks of travel she is in the midst of.

In a normal world I cook M-Th, pizza Friday, out Saturday, door dash Sunday but when she is away and can't help with either dinner or activities I am basically a single dad.

So for example on Mondays daughter has activity from 4-5. Theater from 5:15-6:30. Basketball from 7:30-8:30 so there is literally no chance to cook a meal so it's fast food on the way home from theater.

But my location is horrrrrribly erratic.

Back to back orders of their little sliders deal -- which is pretty good value -- produced one order that was REALLY good, followed by one that was literally inedible they were so thoroughly burned. We're talking briquets. I actually banged them on my desk & made a noise loud enough to be hear over the phone.

All this sidetrack brings me back to something I started to comment on earlier and didn't.

Yep, dine out prices suuuuuuck. But this fits into a recurring theme I've discussed with friends & family numerous times in recent months: what my lying eyes see daily doesn't match the narrative(s) I keep hearing.

I hear how terrrrrrible the economy is. Prices are definitely up, and noticeably so. But ...

Mid afternoon Tues traffic looks like rush hour around here. And it's not work stuff, it's people shopping, eating, etc. My roads are hot with traffic 7 days a week. If times are so tough, shouldn't gas consumption be more of an issue?

Food prices suck ... but most places here have a line around the building on the regular. Our Five Guys is never empty, and is packed at lunch. And our busiest places are generally the most expensive ones.

Will drove down to Macon to see a fairly obscure country artist tonight (Creed Fisher), drew 400-500 people at $25 - $40 per ticket ... but it was obvious that MAYBE 5% of the people in the crowd knew even the chorus of one song. This wasn't OMG-my-favorite-I-must-see-him, this was a crowd made up of "well, it's Friday so we "have" to go SOMEWHERE". And I assure you, these were not 1-percenters, these might barely have been 50-percenters. That's not behavior that fits with the times-are-tough narrative I keep hearing.

We've got perpetual labor shortage here, pay offers are absurdly high for the level of work but few to no takers, if everybody is in such dire straits, how come nobody seems willing to work?

It feels like things are bad & times are tough, I keep hearing how awful things are ... but what my eyes tell me are a very different story. And, nope, I'm not gonna tell you I can explain that disconnect. It's a complete fucking mystery to me, NGL.

Yeah, I empathize. I was flying to some project regularly Mon-Thu and know my wife carried the burden while I was eating at nice restaurants on per diem.

Haven't been to an Applebee's in a long while. Closest one has closed. Do remember liking their Bourbon Street steak and the riblets.

(Same with Bennigan's, remember their ribs literally fell off the bone)

Guessing that it's basically 3 groups of people. Those that have it bad, those that are okay, and those doing well. At one time, those that had it bad was (let's say) 50% of population, it's decreased now to 30%.

So, it's getting better for sure but there's still a higher than normal % of people that are hurting.

Some key areas like housing, affordable higher education, and high credit card debt are still messed up. A year ago, also toss in automobiles, groceries, stock market but now have now recovered some.

Slow process to recovery.

That's the issue, too. Those 50-percenters you see, especially down by Macon, I'm willing to bet 75% of them are sharing memes about gas prices with Trump vs. Biden, how shitty the economy is, etc. When in reality, the economy seems to be doing ok. What is happening is that the corporations are price-gauging people and they are paying it and blaming politicians. I mean, I'm willing to bet they even paid 25-30% fees on top of their ticket prices.

I heard a survey they took that when they asked people how they were doing majority said well but when the same people were asked about the state of the nation they said poorly.

Biden wins the South Carolina primary. Looks like he will get 97% of the vote. Turn out is very low, but South Carolina is an open primary state. I'm guessing many of the Dems choose not to vote in this uncompetitive primary so they can vote in the Republican primary later in the month.

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that's a great idea. vote for anyone but trump

Good news keeps on coming;


RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to step down. Because she did such a fabulous job I'm sure


https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/sta...31234953003031

Trump controls the cult so they send him money directly to pay for his plane and legal bills instead of the RNC. So in turn they fire her for not raising money.

When are these people ever going to learn at some point the leopards are going to eat their faces.

Fear is a great motivator.

Haley needs to pound the drum that Trump might be convicted before November and that might mean a Democratic blowout and

(1) Dem control of state legislatures, who will gerrymander the GOP out of existence
(2) Federal codification of Roe
(3) Replacing Thomas and Alito with 25 year old black queer public defenders
(4) Expanding SCOTUS and throwing a few more justices up there for good measure
(5) DC and Puerto Rico statehood
(6) A transgender bill of rights
(7) banning SUVs
(8) Open Borders
(9) Restrictions on homeschooling

Of course, even with healthy Dem majorities, a lot of those wouldn't happen. But campaigns are all about exaggeration.

She needs to judo Trump's fear based campaign back at him. Make it seem like nominating him is just too risky b/c of all of the criminal charges.

But Haley could only get 30% when Trump wasn't on the ballot in NV. I just don't think there's any realistic chance for her to even threaten to win a single primary.

To be fair, None of these candidates is an extremely compelling choice for a GOP primary.

So Trump's new NATO position should be the biggest (I'd argue only) thing being discussed right now.

Maybe NATO is outdated. Maybe Western Europe has been mooching off of us. Maybe we should disband it.

Personally, I don't think so. But it's a debate worth having since one of the two leading candidates for the Presidency has come out that way.

So let's get our Senators and Reps (from both parties) on record with this. Let's get Haley's position. Let's get Biden's position.

It's the biggest foreign policy question since WWII, so let's, you know, actually treat it that way.

But what about the Taylor Swift conspiracy?! Priorities, people!

Trump is going to put Lara Trump as co-chair of the RNC. Might as well just forward all the donations to Trump's accounts.

Got to it yesterday. I'm happy (and surprised) to say it was pretty edible!

They aren't even hiding that they're going to steal all of the money.

Dems should just play videos of all the things Trump has forgotten under deposition.

Besides just wanting all the money because it's his personal party now, he just probably figures if he wins he can do whatever he wants anyway, regardless of the makeup of Congress.

Biden's age is a thing. It was a thing before. It should have been resolved before now. But here we are. Also...


Reagan Retains Charm but Not His Memory - Los Angeles Times

You think this was primarily related to Reagan's age and not the investigation? Lots of people younger and more with it suddenly don't remember a lot of things when they might face criminal charges.

No, but the Rs back then didn't think to much of his 'memory' issues then did they?

You can't get a Republican to acknowledge a 180 degree different position from documented statements made 5-6 years (heck, maybe months) ago. Pointing out a 35+ year old inconsistency is hardly a gotcha moment in today's politics.

Speaking of Reagan, I think he put his daughter as head of the RNC too (or some major position).

Reagan would have been a RINO is todays party. Today they would be cheering Gorbachev on and praising him for how smart he is that he has a wall...

A republican on the house intelligence committee was tweeting today about a new(?) national security threat and the need for the president to declassify for all members to inspect. Several others are now releasing statements about it saying that they have been tracking this since the beginning and they are talking to the administration about what they can reveal about it

You mean? ANOTHER CRISIS!?!?!?!
Something I can fear, AND be angry about?!?!

Defense industry needs new ways to siphon funds after the Ukraine money fell through.

Next Saturday, Feb 24 is the date for Haley. Not looking good at all, wonder when she'll drop out.

Trump has huge lead over Haley in South Carolina, poll shows - POLITICO

Yes so not even telling the truth about Trump worked for Nikki.

As long as she has financial backing she is going to stick around and home something happens to Trump to disqualify hm.

A nice scenario would be for her to hang on till the very end, Trump loses in 2024, and positions herself for a 2028 run.

I guess it's possible she somehow gets an invite/agrees to join a Trump admin. But I'd be very disappointed in her if she did.

It's not about the candidates at this point, it's about the people the candidates are talking to. Chris Christie said everything that needed to be said way earlier and better than Haley ever could, and the people didn't want to hear it. He basically got booed off of every stage he was on.

I'd be second-guessing my vote for Trump if he puts that treacherous bitch in any job.

You're aware she had a position in his first administration, right?

Yup. But a lot has been said during the run up to now

She is one of the slimiest politicians out there.

I imagine she will be back to saying Trump must be President again when she does drop out

Bill Barr has spent the last three years shit talking about Trump and now he has the gall to say if it's Trump vs. Biden he'll vote for Trump.

Too bad. Would have been interesting for a while.

Manchin says he won’t launch independent presidential bid - Live Updates - POLITICO

Human garbage....

Trump finally comments on the death of Navalny, and like always, he has to make it all about himself.

He once again refuses to condemn Putin, instead targeting the US institutions over that of the violent dictator.

What is the reason why Trump has such a difficult time… pic.twitter.com/6dn47l2iZc

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 19, 2024

They all agree with what Trump and his policies. They just want to be invited to the cocktail parties too. These folks are huge cowards. I respect an all-out MAGA way more than these slimy creatures.

Is Haley dropping out?

Nikki Haley's campaign says she's delivering a speech tomorrow "to address the state of the presidential race."

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 19, 2024

Isn't her home state primary this week and she's going to get embarrassed? Yeah, I'd say dropping out is 99.9% certain (although I haven't really been following any specific news about her lately).

She has too much financial support. It is supposed to be more of a speech about why she is staying in from what I have read.

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If true, I guess she's the chosen one to be the last person standing in case Trump doesn't run. Which seems exceedingly unlikely outside of some sort of health issue. I can't imagine the party telling him no - he'd burn the whole thing to the ground.

Hey, there's always the chance that he flops over dead.

I'd take a very small chance of another candidate over no chance.

The thing is if he dies or drops out, Haley still won't be the nominee. Unless it happens pretty soon, she won't have a majority of delegates by the convention and there's no way a brokered convention selects her to be the nominee.

What do you think would happen if Trump were to be unavailable for whatever reason and the convention had to choose someone else?

Chaos. :) Pretty sure MAGA/Republicans don't care about election laws/normal convention procedures at this point and would nominate whoever made the best deal/got the most money backing. Would be funny then if someone like Liz Cheney/Marc Elias sued them for not following proper election law.

Things become worse? Maybe? :eek:

Anti-Trump independent votes go where?

Look at the Speaker change as a blueprint.

Unless "normal" R's can somehow get control we could end up with a young MAGA idiot running against old Joe. If Trump died of natural causes it wouldn't be believed by Magas. He'd be a martyr that the Libs finally silenced, so I don't think (R) turnout is affected unless it goes up. If he was convicted and in prison? Same answer (you said unavailable, so in that scenario he can't be running the country wearing an ankle bracelet from home).

In a normal world this sounds stupid. But we haven't been normal for quite some time.

Yeah I was more just speculating about ... I mean, the convention will have to choose somebody. I suppose they could just say 'we're nominating Trump regardless, we'd rather he be President from jail/the morgue than anyone else' which would result in a walk-over for Biden since it'd never hold up in court. Even our courts.

But ultimately they'd almost certainly have to nominate somebody else. It's fine to say it'd never be Haley, but who then? I don't think many people really want DeSantis anymore, so ... it likely won't be relevant, but a thought exercise.

Look how long it took them to settle on a Speaker of the House. Could take months to decide on a candidate.

Don Jr.


edit: and I'm not joking. Lara Trump will likely be running the convention, and they will definitely crown a Trump over any other candidate.

IMO, Don Jr. doesn't stand a chance. He doesn't have the MAGA charisma (?).

Good for Haley. I don't know if this is the right decision politically but appreciate the drive to see it through.

“Trump is the very worst—the actual bottom of the barrel—of the human beings our country has birthed.

“You can tell me that he is tied with some others (Manson, Dahmer, and so on) but as a Trump biographer I’m not going to have any difficulty arguing that no one *exceeds* Trump in being despicable.

“Keep in mind that the death toll from his actions during the pandemic will never be equaled by any serial killer or terrorist because it would be logistically impossible.

“He’s betrayed and abused his country, his friends, his family, our legal system, our free market, voters, investors, bankers, lawyers, doctors, vendors, contractors, renters, business associates, consumers, television viewers (understand that most of his early televised pageants were rigged and rigged by him), innocent bystanders (think The Central Park Five) in ways you couldn’t find another human being in American history to have done *in totality*. I can’t name a redeeming quality in the man.

“Opposing Donald Trump isn’t a political act. I want to repeat that: opposing him *isn’t a political act*.

“Opposing him is like opposing serial killers, the mafia, unilateral nuclear strikes, polio, or mob violence.... it’s something *any person of conscience* would naturally do *regardless* of their views on contemporary public policy debates.

“This is something corporate media appears never to have understood: we’re called upon to oppose this man in the same way we are lice, poison, and arson.”

-Seth Abrasom

Dola: And he’s still gonna beat Haley by like 30 points