https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/05/11/grocery-store-prices-up-10-8-most-in-nearly-42-years-as-americans-face-higher-prices-on-hamburger-meat-baby-food-chicken-bacon-soup/

Grocery Store Prices Up 10.8%, Most in Nearly 42 Years as Americans Face Higher Prices on Hamburger Meat, Baby Food, Chicken, Bacon, Soup, and Coffee

It got even more difficult in April for American families to put food on the kitchen table in January.

Food prices rose 9.4 compared with a year earlier, data from the Department of Labor showed on Wednesday. That is the fastest rate of inflation for food since 1981. Grocery store prices were up by even more, 10.8 percent. The broader Consumer Price Index rose by 8.3 percent.

Inflation is now not only running high but it has broadened to an economy-wide phenomenon. Even the kitchen table itself is more expensive. Prices for the category of “living room, kitchen, and dining room” furniture are up 14.9 percent compared with a year ago. They rose 1.1 percent compared with March.

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https://nypost.com/2022/05/10/biden-isnt-fooling-anyone-inflation-is-his-fault-and-he-has-no-solution-to-fix-it/

Biden isn’t fooling anyone ⁠— inflation is his fault and he has no solution to fix it

The president set himself an easy task Tuesday — to show a dispirited public he cares about their painful straits. As he put it, “I want every American to know that I’m taking inflation very seriously and it’s my top domestic priority.”

Just not seriously enough to bring a single new idea to the table. Instead he fell back on tired tropes about how none of the historic increase in prices is his fault.

With Biden, the buck always stops somewhere else.

The two straw men he trotted out were familiar — the pandemic and the Putin Price Hike. The latter coined phrase is as ridiculous as President Gerald Ford’s WIN gambit, for Whip Inflation Now, and will no doubt be just as effective economically and politically.

Asked by a reporter after his address whether he accepted any responsibility for the crisis, Biden said no, adding: “I think our policies help, not hurt.”

Saying so doesn’t make it true.

Nor was it credible for him to claim, again, that there is rampant price gouging by oil and lumber companies and beef distributors.

As usual, his performance was marred by a halting, stumbling delivery as if he were reading his speech for the first time. An even bigger problem is that his argument is no match for the reality Americans see and feel.

Consider these numbers: CNN reports 81% of the public thinks the government is not doing enough to combat inflation.

Fox reports that just 36% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy.

And all that was before the latest record hike in gasoline prices. The national average price of regular unleaded is now $4.37 a gallon, up from $4.20 last week and $2.97 a year ago.

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https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/11/why-doesnt-hong-kongs-tragic-subjugation-get-as-much-attention-as-ukraine/

Why Doesn’t Hong Kong’s Tragic Subjugation Get As Much Attention As Ukraine?

While activists, corporations, and governments are helping Ukraine resist Russia’s invasion, very few talk about Hong Kong’s loss of its democracy to Communist China.

Hong Kong “elected” a new chief while the world wasn’t paying attention.

Hong Kong’s current chief Carrie Lam will retire at the end of June. The selection of her successor has followed the rules Beijing dictated since it took control of Hong Kong in 1997. Beijing stamped out any hope of universal suffrage in Hong Kong in 2004.

Rather than letting more than 7 million residents in Hong Kong have a say in whom the city’s chief should be, Beijing created a “nomi­nating committee” (which has more than 1,400 members today), the majority of which are pro-Beijing elites. The committee would “vote” for a candidate from a list of candidates approved by Beijing. Beijing has ensured that Hong Kong’s chief executive will always be its puppet through this arrangement.

In previous “selections,” Beijing usually approved two or three candidates for the nominating committee to choose from, giving an illusion of an “election” even though the committee knew which candidate Beijing preferred. This year, Beijing dropped all pretense, so John Lee was the only candidate on the ballot.

Lee served as Hong Kong’s security chief under Lam’s administration. He helped Beijing crack down on the city’s pro-democracy movement and enforced the draconian National Security Law.

The National Security Law criminalizes any act of so-called secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with a foreign country or external elements, with a maximum penalty of life in prison. The National Security Law also gives Beijing unprecedented extraterritorial power to punish anyone anywhere in the world for advocating for democracy in Hong Kong.

Evidence that Democracy Has Already Died

Lee’s hard-line approach didn’t win him much public support. According to polls before last Sunday, Lee’s approval rating was only 35 percent. He probably would have had little chance of becoming the city’s chief had a general election been held.

However, with Beijing’s blessing, 1,416 out of the 1,428 members of the nominating committee “voted” for Lee. This means Lee will become Hong Kong’s new chief executive by winning 99 percent of the ballots cast. Such irony has demonstrated how pathetic the Beijing-sanctioned “selection” process is.

Another irony about Lee’s “election” is that he will be the first Hong Kong chief under U.S. sanctions long before his term begins. In August 2020, the Trump administration imposed economic sanctions against a dozen Hong Kong officials, including Lee and Hong Kong’s current chief Carrie Lam, for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy after Beijing’s imposition in 2020 of the national-security law.”

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https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/11/americans-dont-want-war-with-russia-but-republicans-and-democrats-are-forcing-it-anyway/

Americans Don’t Want War With Russia But Republicans And Democrats Are Forcing It Anyway

Since the conflict in Ukraine and Russia began, high-profile elites have demanded that the United States back Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky with finances, food, weaponry, and even the threat of war against Vladimir Putin, but this is out of step with the will of the people.

What started as a call to fund and defend a nation against an invasion from a dangerous dictator, however, quickly morphed into a quest to undermine the Russian regime by whatever means necessary including ordering NATO warplanes to shoot down Russian aircraft and issuing full-blown declarations of war.

A majority of Americans do not want the U.S. to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. Recent polling from The Washington Post and ABC News suggests that 72 percent of U.S. adults “oppose the United States taking direct military action against Russian forces.” Even in the early days of the overseas conflict, only 17 percent of Americans were willing to “risk a direct war between the U.S. and Russia” to “do whatever it can to help Ukraine.”

Congress has yet to vote to officially authorize acts of war against Russia, but that hasn’t stopped some of the most high-ranking officials in the U.S., from President Joe Biden and sitting members of Congress to intelligence agencies and even institutions such as the corporate media, from promoting a clash in Eastern Europe.

Just this week, sitting Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., admitted that the United States is in a proxy war with Russia.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to realize we’re at war. And we’re not just at war to support the Ukrainians. We’re fundamentally at war, although, it’s somewhat through proxy with Russia and it’s important that we win,” Moulton said.

Similarly, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., claimed this week that “we can win this war on behalf of Ukraine.”

“There is no off-ramp in this war. Somebody is going to win and somebody is going to lose, and I hope and pray and do everything in my power to make sure Ukraine wins,” Graham said.

Graham’s march toward war has significantly increased in the last few months. In March, he called for the assassination of Putin by Russians to end the conflict.

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