[AMV] VS #1187 Rutte in America

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 14:04 schreef Momo het volgende:
Ach de VS wil nu wel de eieren voor een koopje hebben van onder andere Denemarken en Nederland

https://www.tagesschau.de(...)appheit-usa-100.html

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The upshot is the story about eggflation arising from bird flu doesn't withstand even cursory scrutiny. The industry claims it's raising prices to cope with a shortage that just doesn't exist. It's an excuse. It's excuseflation.

But – as our neoclassical econ friends will hasten to remind us – raising prices like this just invites competitors to flood into the market with cheaper options. The only way excuseflation can work is if the supply-chain is sewn up by a few dominant firms that can collude to rig markets and block new market entrants, and that is exactly what's happening here.

Start with the grocer's fridge, festooned today with signs warning you that you are limited to purchasing one dozen eggs per customer. At first blush, it may seem like that fridge's dwindling supply of eggs comes from a whole bunch of companies, but closer inspection reveals that nearly every egg for sale in America comes from a single company. Cal-Maine Foods is an obscure conglomerate that bought dozens of egg brands, including Farmhouse Eggs, Sunups, Sunny Meadow, Egg-Land’s Best and Land O’ Lakes eggs:

Cal-Maine CFO Max Bowman has done a series of investor calls trumpeting the company's rising profits, and attributing them to "significantly higher selling prices" and "our ability to adapt to inflationary market pressures." Investors responded with a buying frenzy, driving Cal-Maine's stock to record highs.

Since the start of the bird flu epidemic, Cal-Maine's profits have averaged between 300% and 600% of their pre-bird flu levels. But Cal-Maine's plague profiteering playbook didn't spring up out of nowhere in 2021. During the bird flu outbreaks of the 2000s, Cal-Maine observed that bird flus were good for big egg brands, increasing the price of eggs, but that these increases were transient, fading quickly as flock sizes recovered. During the 2015 bird flu pandemic, producers quickly raised layers to maturity and replaced their flocks, and saw only modest rises in egg prices (and profits).

This time, it's different. The 2021 bird flu outbreak sparked immediate, substantial, ongoing and durable increases in the price of eggs. The number of layers has plunged, driven by a dramatic decrease in the size of the "parent" flock, from whose fertilized eggs we get out supply of layers – from 3.1m hens in 2021 to 2.5m in 2025. The numbers don't tell the whole story, either – the parent flock is, on average, much older than historical norms, meaning that it produces fewer eggs.

That shortage can be seen in the number of pullets – immature hens – being added to farms since the bird flu outbreak. Despite record egg prices, farmers are not increasing the number of egg-laying birds on hand. As Musharbash writes, the only thing that's increased since the start of bird flu is profits. Parent flocks, fertilized eggs and pullets have all seen steady, deliberate decline. That has only worsened over three years. This isn't a bottleneck in the supply-chain – it's a monopoly at play.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 15:08 schreef la_perle_rouge het volgende:
Ze zijn ineens niet zo’n voorstander meer van vrijheid van meningsuiting…

https://bsky.app/profile/(...)l/post/3lkis5doawc2c

People like this fiery veteran are why MAGA Republicans have stopped having town halls.

Last night, he continued to shred Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) as police officers were dragging him out.

The MAGAs are not so fond of free speech now.

Never stop speaking up, America; this is our right!

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 15:47 schreef Repentless het volgende:

[..]
Vrijheid van meningsuiting betekent niet dat je ongelimiteerd bijeenkomsten kunt verstoren of door een spreker heen kunt schreeuwen. Maar dat snap je zelf ook wel, neem ik aan.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 16:33 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]
Dit gaat ook niet om de vrijheid van meningsuiting, maar om vrijheden die veel fundamentaler en essentiëler zijn. Daar wordt aan getornd door Musk en DOGE, met goedkeuring van Trump en de Reps.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 11:04 schreef Lord-Ronddraai het volgende:

[..]
Maar er zit geen logica in wat Schumer zei. Hij zegt te vechten maar hij geeft op voor de eerste ronde start. Wat is de logica van je partij en stemmers verraden door meteen over te lopen naar de vijand. Met Trump weet je toch dat hij zich uberhaupt niet aan de regels houdt dus waarom hem maximaal enablen. Als ze op zijn minst onderhandeld hadden om de scherpe randjes eraf te halen dan zou er misschien logica in zitten maar gewoon tekenen bij het kruisje om een blanco cheque te geven?

Hier heb je bijvoorbeeld Chris Murphy een democratische senator die precies uitlegt waarom hij het idee niet steunt om Trump te helpen zijn plannen makkelijker in te voeren. Dat de bill volledig volstaat met Republikeinse wensen en dat er niet eens over onderhandeld is. Dat Trump ermee macht krijgt om bijvoorbeeld militaire programmas te funden etcetera.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DHJkCUeN5xd/

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What happens in a government shutdown?

When the government shuts down, agencies continue essential work, but federal employees and contractors are not paid. Many employees are furloughed until Congress acts to extend new funding.

Federal agencies typically make contingency plans that lay out who should keep working and what programs need to operate during a shutdown. But spending experts said the decisions about what is deemed “necessary” or “essential” ultimately rest with the White House Office of Management and Budget, currently run by Russell T. Vought.

During a shutdown in Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Vought worked to expand the number of federal employees required to work. But he has also made clear his desire to vastly shrink the federal government, culling its work force and trying to claw back congressionally approved funding for government agencies.

Laura Blessing, a fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute, said that given the Trump administration’s approach to government, it is not clear what might happen under a shutdown.

What powers does a president have during a shutdown?

Shutdowns give the executive branch wide authority to decide how government should work while it lacks spending authority.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have already moved unilaterally to shut off programs and in some cases whole agencies they dislike, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development. But doing so can be a cumbersome and time-consuming process, as the Trump administration has learned from the array of lawsuits it has faced in recent weeks.

In a shutdown, the paradigm would shift toward shuttering every federal department, potentially easing the path for the president and his team to decide which programs to prioritize and which to leave languishing without money to operate.

David Super, a professor who researches administrative law at Georgetown University, said Mr. Trump and Mr. Vought might be able to “effectively dictate the sequence of restarting the government” to favor their agenda, leaving federal employees on prolonged furlough in agencies that they oppose.

What happens under the funding extension?

Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who had been pushing for a shorter-term funding extension to leave time for Congress to agree on regular spending bills, said on Friday that Republicans’ bill “hands a blank check to Elon Musk and Donald Trump to decide how our constituents’ taxpayer dollars get spent — all while they cut funding working people count on each and every day.”

In regular spending bills, members of Congress give specific directions about how they want federal money to be spent for the year. But temporary extensions, like the one that passed on Friday, only continue current funding levels without including any cuts, increases or limitations on their use.

Many Democrats argued that would give the Trump administration more discretion over federal funds even as it has taken steps to stop the spending of money authorized by Congress.

But Ms. Riedl said that under a temporary extension, presidents were generally expected to stick to the funding levels allocated by Congress, except where they had been explicitly modified.

“The president can’t just eliminate the Department of Education or send all the employees of a certain department home,” Ms. Riedl said. “He still must carry out the program and maintain spending at the required rates.”

Still, the Trump administration has made clear that it does not consider itself bound by Congress’s spending dictates.

“Trump and Musk are going to continue acting illegally no matter what this funding bill says," Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a video explaining his opposition. But by extending funding, he added, “Democrats risk putting a kind of bipartisan veneer of endorsement on their campaign to give our government to the billionaires and destroy the rule of law.”

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Op zaterdag 15 maart 2025 20:13 schreef MoreDakka het volgende:

[..]
Dat is niet waar.

Soms is het moeilijk om de werkelijkheid onder ogen te zien en heb je alleen maar keuze uit twee hele slechte opties. Mensen die heel zeker weten dat Schumer voor het één of ander had moeten kiezen zijn simpelweg niet te vertrouwen.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 17:19 schreef Szura het volgende:
https://x.com/mkraju/stat(...)HmtRPra-LMwafhc3Aigg

(Tweet met peilingen over de Dems)

Conclusie: hoog tijd om de boel op te doeken

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Democrats have embraced few issues beyond the concept of MAGA and Trump being bad for the country (which is true) and that they need to be stopped.

Only to then turn around and do a terrible job at stopping Trump and MAGA.

That tends to hurt your favorability.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 18:26 schreef kladderadatsch het volgende:
Ja, dat kan. Vooralsnog is het op zich best een prestatie van ze om gedurende het afbraakbeleid van Trump, alsnog lager te scoren dan de Republikeinen.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 18:36 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:
Democraten lijken bijna onzichtbaar. Bernie doet het in zijn ééntje nog beter.
Biden en Harris zijn gevlucht naar Wokeland ofzo?

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 18:17 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Het electoraat is grillig. Op het moment dat de Dems weer een aansprekende leider hebben, kan de stemming in minder dan een maand volledig omslaan.

Laat de Republikeinen vooral zo doorgaan.

Chaos, rampzalige economische vooruitzichten, en dan straks nog even het mes in de sociale zekerheid zetten ten behoeve van tax cuts waar vooral de rijken van profiteren.

De emmer stroomt vanzelf over.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 18:32 schreef Kansenjongere het volgende:

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Zo werkt dat bij ons toch ook? Rechts regeert maar alles wat er misgaat is de schuld van links.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 19:00 schreef Monolith het volgende:
Buttegieg zich op lijkt te maken voor een moeilijk kandidatuur in 2028.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 18:17 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:
Het electoraat is grillig. Op het moment dat de Dems weer een aansprekende leider hebben, kan de stemming in minder dan een maand volledig omslaan.

Laat de Republikeinen vooral zo doorgaan.

Chaos, rampzalige economische vooruitzichten, en dan straks nog even het mes in de sociale zekerheid zetten ten behoeve van tax cuts waar vooral de rijken van profiteren.

De emmer stroomt vanzelf over.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 21:56 schreef -XOR- het volgende:
https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)ndc_are_illegal_and/

Aanval op de vrije pers.

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Op zondag 16 maart 2025 21:56 schreef -XOR- het volgende:
https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)ndc_are_illegal_and/

Aanval op de vrije pers.