Let’s talk about Nashville, queens, and 2 stories….

THE GUARDIAN: Panic and emotional pain as alleged deep-cover Russian spies vanish

Panic and emotional pain as alleged deep-cover Russian spies vanish
Pair of suspected ‘illegals’ are thought to have been a married couple living separate lives in Brazil and Greece

Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/AFsjY8KJ3SV-VDh-wZjSTMg

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

Let’s talk about developments in the Fox case….

Beau says, “Facts Are Facts”!    I like that.   Hugs

NBC NEWS: Betsy DeVos put millions behind candidates with a goal: Public money for private schools

Betsy DeVos put millions behind candidates with a goal: Public money for private schools
The American Federation for Children has found success amid a 20-year low in support for K-12 education and protests over lessons involving race and identity.

Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/A3bVS74MrQWmjVLGPnFE_VQ

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

Arsenokoitai / How a Bible Error Changed History and Turned Gays Into Pariahs

I want to thank Ali for sending me this back in February.   I have been meaning to post it.  I followed several atheist blogs that already went over this in depth, but this is the best post on it that I can show to the followers of this blog.    Hugs

Or ‘young boy molester’, in Greek. A mistranslation of the word in the 19th century, present in all modern Bibles, is the basis for today’s Xristian homophobia.

https://www.advocate.com/religion/2022/12/17/how-bible-error-changed-history-and-turned-gays-pariahs

How a Bible Error Changed History and Turned Gays Into Pariahs

Bible and translation

In a new book and documentary, two researchers claim the original bible never condemned homosexuality.

 

The words “homosexual” and “heterosexual” were first coined as German nouns by Austrian-born Hungarian psychologist, Karoly Maria Benkert, in the late 19th century, who wrote under pseudonym K.M. Kertbeny.

Ed Oxford is a scholar and researcher. A gay Christian, as well as a graduate of the Talbot School of Theology, his specialty is the history of the Bible, focusing on Bible translations, with a focus on the Greek and Hebrew translations, especially those that relate to human sexuality. Kathy Baldock is an LGBTQ+ advocate and executive director of Canyon Walker Connections, an organization dedicated to repairing “the division that exists between social and Christian conservatives and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community through education, training, and dialogue in both secular and religious environments.”

 

 

Each had been dedicated to researching the roots of antigay theology, and together have written Forging a Sacred Weapon: How the Bible Became Anti-Gay, and they are also the researchers behind the documentary, 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture. In the process of this research, they discovered boxes and boxes of notes in the Yale University archives, among them a half-century old letter written by a young seminarian named David S., to the RSV — Revised Standard Version of the Bible — committee.

Now, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, is, according to the National Council of Churches, the “authorized revision of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a revision of the King James Version, published in 1611.”

This is important to know, because the actual word “homosexual” appears for the first time on February 11, 1946 in the Revised Standard Version. In it, their translation of 1 Corinthians 6:9, they substitute the word “homosexual” for the the Greek words “malakoi” and “arsenokoitai.”

Further, as Oxford shares with Forge, a nonprofit organization that “that creates space for post-evangelical conversations, which includes tools and resources for lgbtq+ inclusion in the church,” “…we went to Leviticus 18:22 and [the translator is] translating it for me word for word. In the English where it says, ‘Man shall not lie with man, for it is an abomination,’ the German version says, ‘Man shall not lie with young boys as he does with a woman, for it is an abomination.’ I said, ‘What?! Are you sure?’ He said, ‘Yes!” Then we went to Leviticus 20:13– same thing, ‘Young boys.’ So we went to 1 Corinthians to see how they translated arsenokoitai (original Greek word) and instead of homosexuals it said, ‘Boy molesters will not inherit the kingdom of God.'”

 

 

Further from there, Oxford shares, “I then grabbed my facsimile copy of Martin Luther’s original German translation from 1534. My friend is reading through it for me and he says, “Ed, this says the same thing!” They use the word knabenschander. Knaben is boy, schander is molester. This word ‘boy molesters’ for the most part carried through the next several centuries of German Bible translations. Knabenschander is also in 1 Timothy 1:10. So the interesting thing is, I asked if they ever changed the word arsenokoitai to homosexual in modern translations. So my friend found it and told me, ‘The first time homosexual appears in a German translation is 1983.'”

 

 

Although the mistake was corrected from “homosexual” to “sexual perverts” in the Revised Standard Version in 1971, the damage had been heavily done, with the word “homosexual” appearing in most translations of the Bible, mostly in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10. This became the fuel for the antigay movement embraced by American conservative Christians, as well as others around the world.

The documentary, 1946, explores and enlightens about this issue, using research and physical evidence, as well as the testimony of scholars, academics, and experts in the field. The movie also features an original score from celebrated queer musician Mary Lambert.

As the director, Sharon “Rocky” Roggio, has said, “It is my goal to change the Christian narrative and liberate the many LGBTQIA+ people living in the dark; oppressed by bad theology. I want us all to live and be acknowledged as equals, under God’s love. There are truths that must be shared.”

Check out 1946themovie.com for ways to watch the documentary.

https://youtu.be/U8fRnIACGXk

 

Trans Man Expertly Shames Florida Lawmakers For Bill Forcing Him To Use Women’s Bathroom

https://www.comicsands.com/trans-man-florida-lawmakers-bathroom-2659686676.html

Many thanks to Ali for the links she sent me in the comments.    These are really worth posting.   Hugs

Transgender FSU student spoke in front of Florida legislature to protest HB1521, which would prohibit trans people from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.

Trans Man Expertly Shames Florida Lawmakers For Bill Forcing Him To Use Women's Bathroom
 
 

Florida State University senior Kaleb Hobson-Garcia addressed the Florida legislature to speak out against HB 1521, which would prevent transgender people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.

Dressed in a suit and sporting a full beard, Hobson-Garcia challenged lawmakers, asking whether they would like him to use the women’s restroom if the bill passed. He argued the bill is “rooted in trans misogyny” and “a hatred of trans women” and non-passing trans people.

According to Hobson-Garcia, the passing of the bill would endanger his safety and potentially lead to hostile confrontations both inside and outside of restrooms.

You can hear what he said in the video below.

Hobson-Garcia said:

“I have just one question for you: To the sponsor of this bill, do you want me in the women’s restroom with you? Because if this bill passes, you’ll be requiring trans men like me to use the women’s restroom or face criminal punishment.”
“This is rooted in trans misogyny, which is a hatred of trans women. It’s rooted in your hatred of non-passing trans people because being faced with trans people makes you uncomfortable.”
“You haven’t even stopped to consider the trans people who look like me who have passing privilege, which means I’m perceived as cisgender, most of the time. You haven’t even considered what me following the law would look like.”

He then pointed out what would likely happen should the bill become law, emphasizing how it would endanger his safety and the safety of others in the transgender community:

“It looks like me in the stall next to the females with my low voice and my facial hair. It looks like me with characteristics that terrify people when they’re seen on trans women. It looks like me bringing discomfort and potentially traumatic experiences to women if I follow the law.”
“When this bathroom ban passes, it also puts my safety at risk. What happens when husbands see me following their wives into restrooms?” …
“If you pass this bill today, know that you’re forcing me to use the bathroom with your daughters, wives, mothers, and sisters.”

Many praised Hobson-Garcia for speaking out and condemned the Florida legislature for proposing the bill.

Hobson-Garcia also addressed HB 1421, which would prohibit minors from accessing gender-affirming care, such as hormone therapy and surgery. Lawmakers heard public comments on HB 1421 and HB 1521 back to back.

The proposed law includes severe penalties for doctors and healthcare providers, including arrest and suspension of their licenses, for performing or attempting to provide such interventions to minors, as well as “conspiring” to do so.

Hobson-Garcia’s testimony emphasizes the obstacles faced by the transgender community and underscores the importance of creating an inclusive and supportive environment that respects individuals’ gender identity.

Those supporting the rabid right republicans culture wars, their gang thug enforcers. Also some good news. I was off the news for 2 days and have 40 open tabs to review.

This post has taken me three days to do.   I had all these open tabs that I finially got cleared.  I have to even looked at todays news yet.   But I think after I post this I will go to bed.   Hugs

Bilderbeck4 hours ago

Trans people deserve better journalism How the anti-trans movement took over legacy media.

“As far as trans health care is concerned, however, the medical consensus is well-established: Nearly a dozen major medical associations, including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics support and recommend gender-affirmative care.

“Yet the specific arguments about this care that make it into many mainstream media outlets result in stories that undermine the experts, stemming not from legitimate concerns but from a larger orchestrated push by the far right to mainstream transphobia.

“Journalists are failing at more than just reporting on the science. Mainstream publications like the Times increasingly follow the lead of anti-trans agitators, treating what should be understood as a fundamental human rights battle more like a semantic “debate,” fixating on terminology and labels and medical minutiae, instead of humanizing trans and nonbinary people and their experiences. In fact, this has become such a contentious pattern at the Times that this February, contributors and members of the Times’s staff posted an open letter protesting the paper’s escalating bias toward anti-trans talking points and pointing out many of these tactics.

https://www.vox.com/culture…

Ann Kah4 hours ago

Men have been performing in drag since at least Shakespeare’s time, and probably long before that. But the fact that someone criticizes this as being “sexual” tells us more about the person who claims that than it does about the person performing.


Manhattan DA Deluged With Racist Death Threats

Trump Judge Blocks Tennessee Ban On Drag Shows

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Infamous Troll Found Guilty Of Election Interference, Posted Memes Telling Black Voters To “Vote By Text”

As proven at trial, between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users and with members of private online groups to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to “vote” via text message or social media which, in reality, was legally invalid.

For example, on November 1, 2016, in or around the same time that Mackey was sending tweets suggesting the importance of limiting “black turnout,” the defendant tweeted an image depicting an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign. The ad stated: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” and “Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.”

The fine print at the bottom of the deceptive image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by Hillary For President 2016.”

 

FL House Approves Expanded K-8 “Don’t Say Gay” Bill

The wide-ranging bill (HB 1069) also seeks to restrict the way teachers and students can use preferred pronouns in schools and bolsters a process for people to object to instructional materials and school-library books.

 

It also expands school board jurisdiction to classroom libraries. The bill would allow a parent who disagrees with a district’s ruling on a book challenge to appeal the state education commissioner to appoint a special magistrate to hear the dispute.

“This bill has given a ticket for racist, homophobic people — that this chamber does not support – to pull books that matter to our children,” said state Rep. Robin Bartleman (D-Weston).

And in about a month, they’ll expand it yet again to all grades and start looking for ways they can force their anti-LGBTQ pogrom on colleges and universities.

Their ultimate goal is to get rid of everything gay.
That includes but is not limited to Marriage Equality.

 

Great. Gay people are illegal. But guns for all

Florida. The Shithole State

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DeSantis Gets Bill Legalizing No-Permit Concealed Carry

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When are we actually going to become a decent country? Think about all the nice things that other industrialized nations have and have had for decades: reasonable gun control, universal health care, paid maternity leave and the like, not to mention democracy that isn’t slipping into outright theocratic fascism.

When do we get to have those things? How fucking shitty and unlivable does America have to become before it finally hits rock bottom and starts to become a better country?

I’m just so fucking sick and tired of watching everything deteriorate and nothing ever fucking gets better, and anytime something does get better everyone knows deep down it’s only a matter of time before the Republicans demolish it. Meanwhile the world passed us by a long time ago when it comes to just basic human development.

I’m becoming increasingly convinced this country is headed toward fascism, civil war or both, and there’s really nothing we can do about it. The Democrats are too weak to stop it, and the media will just bothsides it.

I’m sorry to be pessimistic, but shit like this just completely drains whatever hope I have left.

Fox News Memo: “Label All Biden Policies As Socialism”

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“Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years….Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.” – President Truman, 1952

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Idaho GOP Votes To Criminalize “Abortion Trafficking”

This is the first time that a state has put a law on the books that restricts its residents from interstate travel for abortion access. Idaho already has a near-total abortion ban in place. Neighboring Washington and Oregon allow minors to get an abortion without their parent’s consent.

Idaho’s HB 242 would imprison for up to five years any adult who accompanies a minor across out-of-state without a parent’s consent — an action that the bill calls “abortion trafficking.”

I heard last night on MSNBC that Obstetricians are leaving Idaho. Soon there will not be doctors to deliver babies in the state. It seems that doctors were not without alternatives in front of a maniacal state government.

 

Correct. Its happening in multiple states. First, blue states have a surge in demand so can offer higher pay. Second, treatment of legit miscarriages could cause an a doctor to be subject to police investigation or worse. The maternal death rate in red states (already higher than blue states) is going to skyrocket.

 

My daughter is an OBGYN in Georgia. She calls me and tells me terrifying and gory stories of things that happen on occasion, sometimes to young and perfectly healthy women, in the delivery room. Sometimes even the most skilled doctors have to hit the panic button and summon in a specialist because things can go terribly wrong in a fraction of a moment, even under the best of circumstances.
Imagine now what will happen when the doctors have fled from the red states and there are not enough to go around to save the lives of these mothers and forced mothers to be? I get a chill when I think about it.
What a terrifying time it is to be a girl/woman.

 

Frightening as hell. I image we will see an intra-country medical tourism where wealthy women will travel to blue states to spend there last few pregnant months near a hospital capable of delivering competent care.

 

…and poor women and girls will die in horrifying circumstances that could have been prevented but for the red state policies being put in place.

Republicans want to knock girls up and then hold them prisoner as breeding ovens in their shithole states.

It’s starts with “protecting the kids” to “we know what’s best for our women.” I’ve heard arguments that “the unborn are our state’s citizens, and we have the right to safeguard them.” How women and any men who love them aren’t outraged & unleashing hell upon their would-be captors stuns me to no end.

“Papers please. Please pee on this stick for us before you leave the state.”

Florida Bill Would Change School Board Residency Rules

Read the full article. Perhaps obviously, the bill is meant to allow Moms For Liberty fascists from anywhere in the state to run for school boards where they’d have a shot at winning. Last year Steele, a freshman rep, reported a net worth of over $440 million.

Florida Fascists want to import Christofascists to take over local school boards they don’t even have kids in the district or live near.

 

I expect that the bill will pass so that rabid GQP candidates from the reddest counties will try to pack the school boards in blue counties.

Seems the GQP are blood thirsty for children.
“One statistic in particular stood out: one in 25 American five-year-olds today will not make it to their 40th birthday. No parent should ever have to bury their child, but in the US one set of parents from every kindergarten class most likely will.”

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Missouri House Votes To Defund Public Libraries

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Boebert: Let’s Not “Nitpick What The Bible Says” About My Teenage Son Knocking Up His Underage Girlfriend

“And I mean, there’s things all throughout the week that I know is right to do. And sometimes, I don’t do them. And so we can nitpick what the Bible says is right and wrong, but I think just having that heart posture of wanting to serve God and do the right thing is so important.

Says the woman who attacks the gays and trans because her god hates that, but her underage son having sex outside of marriage and getting a girl pregnant is OK and hands off for some reason.   WTF!    Hugs

You see, whenever I apply the rules to people I don’t like…the bible is absolute…but with my family…we get to pick and choose the rules…so eff you .

Exactly. Some portions of the Bible must be taken verbatim, and some require interpretation and context… but only Republicans can decide which and when, and that decision can vary dependent upon the situation as they see it at that particular time.

Very convenient for them.

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Situational Ethics, a philosophical system originally developed by Congregationalist pastor Charles Sheldon and Episcopalian priest Joseph Fletcher. In the hands of the GOP, it morphs from “How would Jesus love?” to “How can I excuse this?”

another white trashy christian family like Sarah Palin’s who wears their religion on their sleeve to justify attacks on our LGBTQ people.

“I failed my math test, but what’s important is that I have the heart of a person who passed the test.”

No, bitch. Jimmy Carter is a Christian. You are a hypocrite.

TX Bill Seeks Power To Overturn Blue County Elections

SB1993 author Sen. Mayes Middleton [photo] last appeared here for his bill to prosecute and disbar members of a law firm for “reimbursing travel costs of employees who leave Texas to murder their unborn children.”

Fascism. Pure and simple.

 

They know very soon they will not be able to win. Ever.

Aye, and now Republicans want to rig things so elections no longer matter. Ever.

Gerrymandering isn’t enough anymore?

Nope, not for Rethugs. First they turn a majority of voters into a minority of representation. Then they take away that minority representation altogether, creating one-party-only rule.

Just like the Nazis did.

The demise of the US is accelerating. I can see this being illegal, but not really since so many lifetime judges are now IQ45 worshipers. Even if this were go to the SCOTUS it’s still up in the air. If it goes there and SCOTUS says TX has the right to decide an election and not the People then we will absolutely know for a fact that we are not a republic.

Jim Crow tactics, down and dirty.

It’s long been the dream of “conservatives” to disfranchise Black voters. The polysyllabic racist, William F. Buckley, Jr., proposed legislation doing just that back in the 1950s, in areas where Black voters could influence the outcome of elections…because the “advanced race” just had to prevail.

He conceded that in order for the legislation to have the appearance of being Constitutional, some white voters might also be disfranchised. I don’t think he would shed too many tears over that if they were in heavily unionized areas.

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Grand Jury Probes Trump’s Payoff To Second Woman

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And how creepy is it that Trump told Stormy how much she looks like Ivanka before sinking his 3 inch putz at the golf resort?

Both women have alleged in interviews that the president compared them to Ivanka Trump.

Both below, courtesy of Anderson Cooper interviews with women.

Stormy Daniels : Yeah. He was like, “Wow, you — you are special. You remind me of my daughter.” You know — he was like, “You’re smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.”

McDougal: You know, he, he’s very proud of Ivanka, as he should be. I mean, she’s a brilliant woman. She’s beautiful. She’s — you know, that’s his daughter, and he should be proud of her. He said I was beautiful like her and, you know, you’re a smart girl. And there wasn’t a lot of comparing, but there was some, yes. I heard a lot about her. Yes.

Teen Carjackers Foiled By Manual Transmission [Video]

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Texas Judge Strikes Down Insurance Coverage For PrEP

 

The suit was brought by extremist anti-LGBTQ activist Steven Hotze [photo], who was recently ejected from a Texas Senate hearing after repeatedly calling transgender people “pedophiles.”

Hotze appeared on JMG in September 2022 when he explained how COVID vaccines are designed to connect people to the internet “so you can be mind-controlled by artificial intelligence.”

In April 2022, Hotze was charged with two felonies related to a bizarre 2020 “voter fraud search” incident.

Hotze appeared on JMG that year when he left a voice mail for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, telling him to “shoot to kill” Black Lives Matter activists.

You may recall that Steven Hotze has compared gays to “communist termites” eating away at America’s moral fabric. He is also fond of declaring that it’s now a hate crime to denounce homosexuality.

It was Hotze who bankrolled the successful campaign to repeal Houston’s “wicked, evil, Satanic” LGBT rights ordinance, during which he compared gays to rapists and murderers.

According to Hotze, same-sex marriage will result in children “practicing sodomy” in kindergarten.

In 2017, he appeared here when he “prophesied” that God will deliver “just retribution” to lawmakers who vote for LGBT rights.

When he’s not calling on God to kill politicians or for the governor to kill Black Lives Matter activists, Hotze sells “miracle” supplements because high cholesterol doesn’t really cause heart disease.

Hotze regularly quotes QAnon slogans.

O’Connor has widely been described as conservative. O’Connor has become a “go-to” favorite for conservative lawyers, as he tends to reliably rule against Democratic policies. Attorneys General in Texas appear to strategically file cases in O’Connor’s jurisdiction so that he will hear them.

More judge shopping by the Republicans. But you won’t hear Democrats even talk about this.

 

Let’s talk about schools, legislation, and security….

*** Edited to include the following ***

Nan pointed out in a comment that she felt the longer video had more information that should be shared.    I have not listened to the longer video and right now I can’t due to the pain in my back and a large backlog of videos I want to watch, but I trust Nan and the other viewers that come here.   If she says it is worth watching, then it really is.   Hugs

Alice Oseman slams ‘thriving’ homophobia following Heartstopper book ban in Florida

 
On the left, the cover of graphic novel Heartstopper volume 1. On the right, Alice Oseman wearing a blue jacket.

Alice Oseman’s seminal graphic novel series Heartstopper has joined the growing list of LGBTQ+ books banned in certain parts of the US.

 

According to the Florida Freedom to Read Project, more than fifty books were banned in the Clay County school district in Florida last week (24 March), many of which are written by LGBTQ+ authors or discuss sexuality or gender identity.

 

The list of banned books includes the first three volumes of Oseman’s Heartstopper, as well as her 2016 novel Radio Silence, which features a number of queer characters.

Other books removed in the latest round of book bans in the district include LGBTQ+ young adult romance novel One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva, and comic A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns.

The Florida Freedom to Read Project shared that a total of 355 books have now been removed from the school district since July 2022.

 

Along with LGBTQ+ books, the bans are impacting Black authors and books about and racism and racial justice.

Responding to the Heartstopper ban, Alice Oseman decried the growing number of book bans as thinly-veiled homophobia.

“Racism, homophobia and transphobia are thriving under the guise of ‘concern for children’. This is not just a US issue either,” Oseman warned. “We’re seeing the exact same ‘concern’ here in the UK.”

She also shared a statement by the Florida Freedom to Read Project, with the quote: “Indoctrination happens when you remove access to ideas.”

Alice Oseman responds on Instagram to Heartstopper being banned by a Florida school district.
Alice Oseman condemned “homophobia” under the guise of ‘concern for children’. (Instagram/@aliceoseman)

Rising anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has led to a record number of individual book bans in the US, with one report indicating that 2,532 books were banned in the 2021/2022 school year. 

More than half of those banned feature LGBTQ+ characters or discussions. 

A separate report indicates that there were around 1,200 attempts to ban books in the US in 2022, more than double the record set in 2021.

Last week (22 March), a school district in New York received a bomb threat due to the simple fact that it stocks LGBTQ+ books. Meanwhile, staff at a library in Cork, Ireland, were called “paedophile slurs” because the library had LGBTQ+ literature on the shelves.

One of the most-banned books in the US is This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson, who recently hit out at the “organised attack” on LGBTQ+ literature.

Juno Dawson
Author Juno Dawson has addressed book bans in US, including of her work. (Credit: Getty Images)

“What we’re seeing now is a really organised attack on books because the far-right is out of ideas. What else can you attack but trans healthcare, drag queens, books,” Dawson said in an Instagram statement on 26 March.

“So I just want to say a huge thank you to all the librarians and educators who are defending freedom of speech and the right for young LGBTQ+ people to see themselves in books. Stand strong in full solidarity.”

High egg prices send profits at largest US producer soaring more than 700%

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/

Price gouging!   Profit is king even if it kills people.   The inflation the US is experiencing is mostly being caused by greed and unheard of profit by major companies doing price gouging.   Yet few elected officials are talking about it and few news organizations are reporting it.   Instead, even when hit with it during a congressional hearing Jerome Powell insists that the rates hikes will keep going until there is a return to large unemployment.   Why?  Because the wealthy are terrified of the power working people have right now in the labor market.   They want that quashed, stomped down until the old status quo returns where companies could set any low wage and bad working conditions and the workers had to accept that.  That is what the rate hikes are about, and Powell even admits that he wants high unemployment even as it hurts the working people and the poor.    Now it is starting to be made more public how corporations have been raking in record profits including the big oil companies that kept gas prices as high as possible, including railroad companies even as they cut the work force to the bare minimum to the point of only having two workers for even miles long trains, and it also includes food producing companies.   Stop to think of how everything people need and use went up in price the companies blamed it on everything from supply issues to in the case of eggs / chick on bird flu / death of the chickens.   Yet these same companies have kept raising prices even as all the issues they claimed were causing the price increases have been solved and gone away.   Hugs

Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer in the United States, reported revenue doubled and profit surged 718% last quarter because of sharply higher egg prices.

The company, which controls about 20% of the US egg market according to Reuters, said its average selling price for a dozen eggs in the quarter ending February 25 was $3.30, more than double the average of $1.61 a year earlier. Despite the higher prices, the total number of eggs it sold edged up 1%, so its overall revenue rose 109% to $997.5 million.

That doubling of revenue was nothing compared to its profits, however. Net income soared to $323.2 million from only $39.5 million a year ago.

The jump in revenue and profit had been expected but easily topped forecasts. Shares of Cal-Maine (CALM) were up 4% in premarket trading.

A deadly and highly infectious avian flu has forced US farmers to kill millions of egg-laying hens, reducing the country’s egg supply and driving up prices. But Cal-Maine said in its earnings statement that there have been no positive tests for avian flu at any of its owned or contracted production facilities.

Egg producers’ pricing decisions have been criticized by some politicians, who accuse them of profiteering and price gouging.

“American families working to put food on the table deserve to know whether the increased prices they are paying for eggs represent a legitimate response to reduced supply or out-of-control corporate greed,” said a letter sent by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Katie Porter to Cal-Maine and other major egg producers last month.

Cal-Maine did not immediately respond early Wednesday to a request for comment about the letter.

Egg prices did start to retreat slightly in the government’s most recent inflation reading for February, but are still up more than 55% from a year earlier.

 

So inflation is bullshit and we’re just being gouged

Yup. There is no inflation like there was in the 70s. Corporate profits are at record highs.

Pure, unadulterated greed. Raise taxes on our profits? We’ll show you….

Or, we’re being gouged which in turn CAUSES inflation.

Eggs start at $6 where I am. Sometimes you can find them for $3.99 at Trader Joes. Reading this article, the egg producers are behaving just like oil companies. Manufacturing a fake crises and then jacking up prices,

I read that about 1% of layers were put down. That’s it.

That’s what we’ve been told.
But reading the article, it says production is up by 1% and profits by 700%.

Only 1% werre put down. The prices are a manufactured crisis.

Huh, so higher egg prices were caused by price gouging which is possible because we’ve allowed consolidation to wipe out real competition? Who could possibly have guessed that?

This is price gouging. Yes, if your costs go up, you have to raise prices, but if you just raised prices by the amount your costs increased, then profits would stay relatively the same.

When the tax on beer went up a quarter per case, the price increased by a dollar a six pack.