One more cup of coffee before I go...

“I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down.” Donald Trump

I was reading NextDoor the other day when I saw this post:

I thought, five bucks for a cup of coffee, that does seem a little extreme. Didn't the great leader tell us that grocery prices were going down, down, down?

“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” Donald Trump

I know that it is an upside down world these days but grocery and commodity prices are not going down, in fact they are going up.

A lot.

Coffee prices surged by 3.6% last month, the largest one-month increase since 2011, according to the latest Consumer Price Index. Coffee prices are up 20.9% so far this year, a near-record annual increase. The US gets most of its coffee from Brazil, and Brazilian imports – including coffee – began facing 50% tariffs last month.

It’s not just your cup of joe. America is highly dependent on other countries for most of its fresh fruit and vegetables. Imports make up 60% of fresh fruit and 38% of fresh vegetables in the United States, according to the Agriculture Department.

Prices on these items are rising. Last month, apple prices increased 3.5%, lettuce 3.5% and bananas 2.1% from the month prior, the index showed.

Tomato prices were up 4.5%. The United States depends on Mexico for a variety of fresh tomatoes, most of which began facing 17% tariffs in July after a nearly three-decade-old trade agreement expired.

From HuffPo:

Perhaps the most extreme example of tariff-induced price hikes thus far is coffee, which is experiencing a 63% annualized inflation rate thanks in large part to Trump’s 50% import tax on major coffee exporter Brazil, a response to that country’s prosecution of Trump’s friend and fellow coup-attempter Jair Bolsonaro.

Presidents not kings?

50% tariff on coffee?  Like drinking liquid gold and not the fake gold plated stuff that now adorns most of the White House like some tawdry Clampett wet dream, I mean the real stuff. 

Soon the only people that will be able to afford to drink the stuff will be the Prez and his assorted grifter robber barons.

Of course, it is not just coffee getting hit, it is pretty much everything, including electricity.

In the four months since he announced his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on goods from the rest of the world, inflation on groceries is running at 3.1% on an annualized basis, according to a HuffPost analysis of federal government statistics. In Biden’s final year, grocery prices increased 1.8%.

The inflation rate for electricity over the past four months is running at 15.7% – more than four times what it was in Biden’s final year.

The overall inflation rate is now also higher than it was in Biden’s last 12 months in office: 3.1% on an annualized basis, compared to 2.8%.

“This is what economists warned would happen,” said University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers. “Trump promised these prices would fall. While one could quibble about the rate at which these prices are rising, there’s no question that he hasn’t delivered.”

But wait, didn't the great one tell us that Americans wouldn't pay for tariffs, that they would be absorbed by the other exporting countries?

'Fraid not. The five dollar coffees are getting borne by you and I, American consumers. 

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There is nothing that red staters hate worse than the specter of communism creeping into American life. But it is funny, it is okay to keep handing out fat checks to American corporate farmers after a catastrophe, even if it is one of the administration's making like the tariff fiasco.

We have killed corn and soybean markets. This is mostly the fault of Trump but also the fault of pig headed farmers who followed the GMO and pesticide train, even after consumers said that they were not interested.

China, Europe and Canada now want certifications on every bin and a guarantee of less than lethal ppm pesticide residue. And we can't deliver. I was reading an interview with an Arkansas farmer and he was asked what the administration could now do about the market crash and he said that they could write him a big fat check.

And you know that they ultimately will. Everybody can fail except the red state base, they get to suck on the government tit and they get to win every time.

We have screwed our farmers over by playing hardball with Canada, which is now shutting us out of their potash supply, which is absolutely necessary for plants and food to grow. Couple that with an immigration policy that has left very few to work the fields and you have yourself a food disaster.

“We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers and, ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers,” he promised. “This will be indeed the golden age of America.”Instead of lowering costs, though, tariffs have brought higher prices, both because of the tax American importers pay for finished goods but also because U.S. manufacturers rely on so many foreign raw materials and intermediary parts.“Donald Trump promised he’d bring costs down on ‘day one,’ but eight months into his term, inflation remains high, and now, it’s getting harder and harder to find a job as hiring slows to a near standstill and unemployment rises,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. “Americans aren’t being ‘liberated,’ they’re being robbed by Trump’s chaotic billionaire-first economic agenda.”

We haven't done such a good job at prying open foreign markets with our trade practices and tariff ineptitude, we have instead broke long standing supply chains and bred resentment. And I have to wonder if we will ever get them back? 

People don't like to negotiate with bullies who have a gun to their head. That is not the way friends and allies are supposed to behave.

I would tell you that I would buy you a coffee and discuss this, but frankly I can't afford one. 

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If you are looking for recent inflation numbers, don't bother.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday postponed the release of a key annual report central to future inflation data.

Why it matters: The BLS — charged with collecting critical data on employment, prices and more — did not explain the reasoning for the delay or when it might ultimately be released.

My guess is that the numbers weren't too charitable. In Trumpworld that means that statistics get squashed and somebody gets fired.

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We are cancelling our Disney + subscription. Not much left to see there anyway. 

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Did you see this? And when have we seen it before?

GOP Lawmakers push to build Charlie Kirk Memorials on public campuses in Red States

Lenin or Stalin?