The last time we had any actual food price deflation was in late 2016 for a few months.
Traumatized tourist stabbed in Times Square will never return to city...
When I first visited New York City many years ago, we parked the car and as we got out a cab pulled up along side but behind us a little on an angle.
A man jumped out of the back seat, pulled out his pecker, and peed like a race horse on the street right in front of us like it was nothing. Then he jumped back in the cab and it took off again.
Never even got wet.
UN seemingly halves estimate of Gazan women, children killed
On May 6, the UN published data showing that 34,735 people had reportedly been killed in Gaza, including over 9,500 women and over 14,500 children. On May 8, the UN published data showing 34,844 people had reportedly been killed, including 4,959 women and 7,797 children. The new figures showed the number of identified deaths as of April 30, which total 24,686 people. ... Washington Institute for Near East Policy released a report in January that showed major discrepancies in the fatality reports. They concluded such discrepancies were most likely caused by manipulation.
It is an insult to ... millions ... when some embrace dark rhetoric about immigrants poisoning the nation’s blood. ... Americans deserve better than politicians who would choose to use the issue as a political wedge rather than as a mandate to govern. The people who for centuries have risked their lives and everything they owned to flee British kings and dictators like Stalin and Castro will not let Trump’s tyranny extinguish the flame of the American dream.
Here, at libertarian, open-borders Real Clear Politics.
CNBC May 10th: McDonald’s is working to introduce a $5 value meal
But the next to last paragraph indicates they ain't got one yet lol:
An initial proposal by McDonald’s for the $5 value meal did not clear necessary hurdles.
Yeah, no kidding. That's cause your $5 value meal was ten years ago.
The New York Post April 3rd: McDonald’s menu prices have increased by over 100% during the last decade: study
McDonald’s has jacked up its menu prices by more than 100% over the
course of the last decade — more than three times the rate of US
inflation, according to a research report. ... Now, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal goes for $11.99 — more than double the $5.39 it cost in 2014, according to a study by FinanceBuzz, which cited average prices nationwide. ...
The analysis by FinanceBuzz found that McDonald’s was one of 13 restaurants that have raised menu prices in the last decade by 60% on average between 2014 and 2024 — or nearly double the cumulative national rate of inflation of 31% over that period.
While McDonald’s was the worst offender — tripling the rate of inflation, according to FinanceBuzz — Popeyes, Taco Bell, Chipotle and Jimmy John’s raised the prices of their menu items at more than double the actual inflation rate, the study found.
It's like Obamacare.
The perfidy of Joe Biden knows no bounds.
Less than a day before the Biden administration announced its intent to cut off U.S. arms sales to Israel, it issued a sanctions waiver to bypass congressional prohibitions on arms sales to a host of Arab nations that boycott the Jewish state, including Hamas ally Qatar and Iran-controlled Lebanon, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
More.
American citizens have been held hostage by Hamas for seven months, and with Israel on the cusp of ending their ordeal, Biden pulls the rug out.
Israel wasn't even in Rafah when Biden decided to halt the shipments. He stopped them early last week. He's lying.
Biden's treachery to our allies in-country has been on display from the beginning of his career, abandoning them from Vietnam all the way on to Afghanistan, and now on to Israel.
He's told us who he is all his life, worse than Jimmy Carter.
Biden says U.S. won’t supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah, in warning to ally
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN. “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem.”
Politico reports here.
RFK Jr has complained of memory loss, severe mental fog, a dark spot on his brain, a brain tumor, a brain-eating worm, atrial fibrillation, a bag of worms in his chest, mercury poisoning, trouble retrieving words, hepatitis C, spasmodic dysphonia, and getting on the ballot in only a handful of states with just six months until the election.
MEDIA HYPE? STUDENTS RATE GAZA WAR LEAST OF CONCERNS...
More than simply a double standard, the constant haranguing of Israel by the United States over the deaths of innocents – the accidental deaths of innocents, the unavoidable deaths of innocents during wartime – constitutes an immoral attack against an ethical army that is doing its best to prevent civilian casualties.
More.
Majorities now approve of Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans—including 42 percent of Democrats—as well as a border wall. And while violent crime has fallen dramatically since the Trump presidency, voters see more disorder. Drugstores didn’t clear their shelves and lock up merchandise because of widespread looting until Biden was in charge. Videos of open-air drug markets and mayhem on subways don’t just make people scared, they make them angry.
There has been record inflation too, and high prices contribute to a pervasive sense of anxiety in the electorate. But Biden would be far better off politically if high prices were the sole challenge he had with voters. Disorder is a drain on the American psyche. And it’s threatening Biden’s re-election, as it leaves voters receptive to the kind of harsh law-and-order appeal Trump prefers. ... look at the polls ... There is bipartisan fury over protests and immigration. Trump is running to restore order, and voters have given him a lead.
The column is devastating for Biden.
Axios reported yesterday here, just as Hamas was launching new rocket attacks on Israel.
Election officials report that of 159 million ballots cast in 2020, more than 68 million were submitted by mail, about 43 percent of the total. In addition, as the MIT Election Data and Science Lab noted, “the dramatic increase in the raw number of absentee ballots cast was accompanied by a significant decrease in the overall absentee rejection rate for the country: from 0.96 percent in 2016 to 0.79 percent in 2020.”
If the recent Heartland Institute/Rasmussen survey is accurate and one in five ballots were, in fact, fraudulent, that would suggest greater than 13 million ballots should not have been counted nationwide in 2020. That’s far more than the margin of victory for President Biden in the popular vote, about 7 million. ...
Another survey conducted in March and April by the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen shows that 28 percent of likely voters now say they would commit at least one form of illegal voting during the 2024 election, “if given the opportunity.” Interestingly, respondents’ willingness to commit fraud was similar among Republicans, Democrats, and independents.
More.
Everything is awesome.
Another example of the loss of the sense of proportionality:
Because average annual real GDP growth rates are so low.
Between 1929 and 1945, average annual real GDP grew at a compound annual rate of 4.74%.
Between 2007 and 2023, average annual real GDP grew at a compound annual rate of 1.82%, which is under-performing the sixteen year Great Depression and WWII era rate by almost 62%.
Up until 2007, the country averaged 3.44% from 1929.
Something remains rotten in Denmark.
She had attacked her ex-husband with a knife but lied about her arrest.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke admitted Wednesday that she was arrested and chose not to disclose the legal matter during her Senate confirmation process because it had been expunged from her record.
More.
Her appointment stank in 2021, and it reeks now. She aggressively prosecutes peaceful abortion protesters but turns a blind eye to actual violent attacks on pro-life facilities.
Clarke not only invited notorious anti-Semite and black supremacist quack Anthony Martin — whose racist theories happen to comport perfectly with the ones she presented in her letter — to speak at Harvard, but also praised his intelligence and the veracity of his work. In her letter, Clarke specifically points to a doctor named Carol Barnes to claim “melanin theory” is what gives “Blacks their superior physical and mental abilities.” In those days, bigoted pseudo-intellectuals such as Martin and Leonard Jeffries were quite popular on campuses.
-- National Review reported.
“Between last fall and January,” Ohanian wrote, “California fast-food restaurants cut about 9,500 jobs, representing a 1.3% change from September 2023.” By comparison, overall employment in California during that period fell just 0.2%.
Michael Ojeda, a Pizza Hut driver for eight years in Ontario, Calif., received notice in December that his last day would be in February, according to a letter from his former employer. Pizza Hut franchisee Southern California Pizza offered $400 in severance if he stayed through February, but Ojeda, who said he made hundreds of dollars a week in wages and tips as a delivery driver, went on unemployment instead.
“Pizza Hut was my career for nearly a decade and with little to no notice it was taken away,” said Ojeda, 29, who previously supported his mother and partner on his Pizza Hut delivery wages.
Southern California Pizza didn’t respond to requests for comment. Pizza Hut said it was aware of some of its California franchisees changing their delivery services.
-- The Wall Street Journal reported.
Since California’s new law went into effect to raise the minimum wage of fast-food workers, who are employed by chains of 60 restaurants and more, from $16 to $20 an hour, some fast-food chains have raised their food prices, according to a new study.
Kalinowski Equity Research said that menu prices at some restaurants have gone up as much as 8% since April 1.
Wendy’s is leading the price hikes at 8% while Chipotle’s food prices have gone up 7.5%.
As Starbucks’ food items are now 7% more expensive, customers at Taco Bell and Burger King are now paying 3% and 2% more respectively.
Starbucks confirmed its price increase, saying it was largely due to the minimum wage increase in the state.
Wendy’s, Chipotle’s, Taco Bell and Burger King did not respond to NBC Los Angeles’ request for comments and confirmation.
In response to the price increases, the California Restaurant Association said they were the “entirely predictable” results of the minimum wage increase.
“Since it took effect, job losses, reduced working hours, restaurant closures and higher prices for California’s inflation-weary consumers have been ongoing,” the group said.
Southern California who frequented fast-food restaurants for convenience and affordability said they are feeling the squeeze.
“I used to pay $10. Now it's $13. Over time that’ll be like $6 more or $9 – it just keeps going,” Owen Peralta, a Chipotle customer in Brea, said. “If I'm going to start paying restaurant prices, then I'm going to have to go somewhere else.”
Specifically in the case of Chipote, its chicken burritos are now 8.3% pricer while steak burritos will cost customers 7% more.
Other customers hinted the rising food prices are changing the way fast food is perceived and consumed.
“[The rising prices] probably won’t stop me, but I’ll probably eat out less,” Cindy Tran, a Brea resident, said.
“I’ll decide not to eat out probably a couple of times a month,” Mike Larson added.