Dems Secretly Tell Grocery Reps: Price Controls Will Never Pass Congress
Democrat lawmakers have been seeking to allay fears about Kamala Harris’s price-control policy by telling grocery industry representatives that price controls will never pass Congress.
Alarm has grown within the grocery sector over the Vice President’s plan to impose central controls on food prices, and among the general public.
Congressional Democrats and aides spoke to Politico under condition of anonymity and said they believe price controls and bills to combat price gouging have no chance of passing Congress.
“I honestly still don’t know how this would work,” said one Democratic lawmaker.
Politico reports that the “backlash has tempered Harris allies’ initial push to paint the proposal as a bold, progressive idea. Since introducing the price gouging plan, her advisers have sought to soften criticism of the proposal by downplaying its overall impact on the market — and emphasizing that the goal is simply to target a small cohort of potential ‘bad actors,’ rather than generate the kind of sweeping overhaul suggested by the plan’s initial rollout.”
Lawmakers have been telling critics and insiders that instead of being a clear policy promise, Harris’s proposals are simply “messaging.” What Harris is actually doing is trying “to show that she understands food prices remain an economic burden for many Americans and to redirect voters’ anger about inflation to corporations, in a way that progressives in particular have cheered.”
#Kamunism pic.twitter.com/Zv20l6FKIY
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 17, 2024
Donald Trump has seized on the plan and labelled the Vice President a “communist” and “Comrade Kamala.” Kamunism was a recent New York Post headline, and #Kamunism has been trending on Twitter.
Trump has also claimed that Harris is doing her best to pretend that she is not currently the Vice President, to make it look as if he is responsible for the current economic situation.
“Kamala and her ‘handlers’ are trying to make it sound like I am the Incumbent President, so that they can blame me for the failure of the past four years,” the former president Tweeted on Sunday.
“No, it was their failure! It is one of the worst Presidencies in History, and she is definitely the Worst Vice President.”
Kamala and her “handlers” are trying to make it sound like I am the Incumbent President, so that they can blame me for the failure of the past four years. No, it was their failure! It is one of the worst Presidencies in History, and she is definitely the Worst Vice President.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2024
Trump followed that Tweet with three further Tweets where he highlighted the disastrous effects on the economy and individual freedom if Kamala Harris wins the election.
“If you think things are expensive now, they will get 100 times WORSE if Kamala gets four years as President. Under her plan, Kamala will implement SOVIET Style Price Controls. She will abolish private health care, and make California’s ridiculous tax policies the law of the land, meaning EVERY American will be taxed up to 80% of their income! If you want more CASH and less TAX, VOTE TRUMP!!!”
Breaking Video: Gavin Newsom Brags About Kamala Harris Being Unelected
On the Sunday show Alex Jones discussed Gavin Newsom letting the Kamala cat out of the bag.
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Mike Benz: US State Dept. Behind Arrest of Telegram CEO
The US State Department is responsible for the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France, according to Mike Benz.
Benz released a five-minute video on Twitter on Saturday detailing why he believes the US State Department played a hand in the arrest of Durov.
He believes the State Department want to exert pressure on Telegram, not in order to destroy the platform, but to bend it to their will and control it. Benz notes how Telegram has been used in US-backed “color revolutions,” including in Belarus and Russia.
“Telegram played a major role in the State Department’s fomenting of the color revolution in Belarus in the summer of 2020. The National Endowment for Democracy, the US State Department, and USAID were all funding the major organisers of the street riots in Belarus and using Telegram as the main channel to organise those street riots because Telegram has such ubiquitous use in Eastern Europe, also in Russia, also in Ukraine. So they loved Telegram as a way to organise rent-a-riots to destabilise Lukashenko’s government.”
Benz goes on to compare the situation with Telegram to what happened to Wikileaks, which the US government “wanted to kill”, and WhatsApp, which they wanted to control.
“So what they want to do is not kill Telegram like they wanted to kill Wikileaks. They want to control it. And the problem was, they didn’t have the ability to put sufficient pressure on Pavel to break his will. So he was living in Dubai. Now they have leverage. I believe that’s the purpose of this prosecution: not to establish a legal precedent that for every encrypted chat app its founder is personally responsible for all illegal conversations or transactions on the platform, but rather to force Telegram to become WhatsApp.
“This is what they did to WhatsApp, by the way. Through this regulatory pressure, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. They broke WhatsApp’s back.”
“They didn’t want to shut down WhatsApp,” Benz continues.
“Whatsapp is used by everybody in Latin America and South America, and half in India. They [the State Department] want to control it, to be able to have their own personnel in place to install and oversee the policies in every country on Earth in order to shape the political outcomes from the inside of every country on Earth to determine their elections. This is what they did to WhatsApp and Telegram in Brazil.”
Just got booted from the @MarioNawfal space so I’m gonna speak my peace here: what’s behind today’s arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov pic.twitter.com/FexLvJZK92
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) August 25, 2024
Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris on Saturday, on charges related to the spread of illicit material via Telegram. He was arrested after arriving at Le Bourget Airport on a private plane from Azerbaijan.
In a statement on Telegram on Sunday, the company said, “Telegram abides by EU laws,” adding, “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide.”
Ukraine Tells Belarus to Pull its Army From the Border
Belarus has amassed a large number of troops at the border, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, warning Minsk against making “tragic mistakes.”
Citing intelligence reports, the ministry said that the Belarusian Armed Forces are “concentrating a significant number of personnel,” including tanks and artillery, in the Gomel Region “under the guise of exercises.”
“The presence of mercenaries of the former Wagner PMC was also recorded,” the ministry said in a statement on its website. It went on to argue that holding drills near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant “poses a threat to the national security of Ukraine and global security in general.”
The ministry warned Minsk “not to make tragic mistakes” and urged the neighboring country to “cease unfriendly actions and withdraw forces away from Ukraine’s state border to a distance greater than the firing range of Belarus’ systems.”
“Ukraine has never taken and is not going to take any unfriendly actions against the Belarusian people,” the ministry argued, stressing that Ukraine reserves the right to defend itself in case of an attack.
Read more Ukrainians will soon realize the West ‘used them’ – Lukashenko
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko earlier accused Kiev of dangerous military buildup, claiming that Kiev had amassed more than 120,000 troops on its northern border.
“Having seen their aggressive policy, we have deployed our troops to certain areas near our border,” Lukashenko said in an interview with the Russian broadcaster VGTRK this month. “I was forced to deploy almost a third of [the Belarusian] army to reinforce the existing forces.” He added that the troops were ready to “defend” Belarus should a war break out.
In early August, Lukashenko said that the air defense forces had shot down several “attack drones” that took off in Ukraine and violated Belarusian airspace.
Minsk has urged Russia and Ukraine to return to the negotiating table, warning that the continuing fighting could lead to “an escalation that would result in Ukraine’s destruction.”
Belarus has a defense pact with Russia and Russian nuclear weapons are stationed on its territory.
Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region on August 6, claiming that it was intending to establish a “buffer zone” on Russian soil. Moscow responded by deploying additional forces to repel the invaders and organizing the evacuation of civilians from the affected areas. President Vladimir Putin had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Ukraine “attempted to strike” the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant.
Rumble CEO Leaves Europe after Telegram CEO Arrest
Rumble’s CEO, Chris Pavlovski, announced on Sunday that he has left Europe following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov.
In a post on Twitter, Pavlovski said that France had “crossed a red line” with the arrest.
“I’m a little late to this, but for good reason — I’ve just safely departed from Europe,” Pavlovski Tweeted.
“France has threatened Rumble, and now they have crossed a red line by arresting Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, reportedly for not censoring speech.
“Rumble will not stand for this behavior and will use every legal means available to fight for freedom of expression, a universal human right. We are currently fighting in the courts of France, and we hope for Pavel Durov’s immediate release.”
Pavlovski used a subsequent Tweet to highlight the censorship of Rumble around the world.
“Free speech is under major assault and I will not stop fighting for it.”
?? China bans Rumble
?? France threatens Rumble, we leave
?? Brazil threatens Rumble, we leave
?? UK threatens Rumble
?? Russia bans Rumble
?? New Zealand threatens Rumble
?? France arrests Telegram CEO
Free speech is under major assault and I will not stop fighting for it.— Chris Pavlovski (@chrispavlovski) August 25, 2024
Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris on Saturday, on charges related to the spread of illicit material via Telegram. He was arrested after arriving at Le Bourget Airport on a private plane from Azerbaijan.
In a statement on Telegram on Sunday, the company said, “Telegram abides by EU laws,” adding, “Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide.”
Analyst Mike Benz believes the US State Department is ultimately behind the arrest, because it wants to control Telegram.
“What they [the State Department] want to do is not kill Telegram like they wanted to kill Wikileaks,” Benz said in a video posted to Twitter.
“They want to control it. And the problem was, they didn’t have the ability to put sufficient pressure on Pavel to break his will. So he was living in Dubai. Now they have leverage. I believe that’s the purpose of this prosecution: not to establish a legal precedent that for every encrypted chat app its founder is personally responsible for all illegal conversations or transactions on the platform, but rather to force Telegram to become WhatsApp.”
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said that Durov “miscalculated” by thinking he could be a “brilliant ‘man of the world’ who lives wonderfully without a motherland.”
“For all our common enemies now, he is Russian—and therefore unpredictable and dangerous.”
“Durov should finally realise that one cannot choose one’s fatherland,” Medvedev added.
Secret Service Removes RFK Jr.’s Protection
The Secret Service has removed RFK Jr.’s protection detail after he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump.
The New York Post reported on Sunday that Kennedy’s protection had been removed, and cited a direct confirmation from Secret Service.
Joe Biden had instructed the Secret Service to provide him with a personal detail following the attempt on Donald Trump’s life in July.
Prior to Biden’s announcement, Kennedy had lobbied for Secret Service protection for months, but claimed he was being denied it for political reasons. Kennedy’s legal team cited 34 separate instances of threats against him. Kennedy’s father and uncle—Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy—were both assassinated.
Although he has dropped out of the race to endorse Trump, RFK Jr.’s name remains on the ballot in at least ten states. Kennedy has announced that he will actively campaign with Trump in the coming weeks.
The Post notes that it is “standard procedure” for Secret Service details to be “scale[d] back” when a candidate drops out, but not to be eliminated totally.
The Secret Service has faced tremendous scrutiny since the events of 13 July in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman came within millimetres of killing former president Donald Trump.
Kimberley Cheatle, the Secret Service director, has since resigned, and five officials have been placed on administrative duty because of the agency’s failings.
Multiple investigations into the events of 13 July are now taking place, including a bipartisan task force in the House and FBI and DHS probes.