Tag: FUEL PRICE

Sorry Democrats and Never-Trumpers… Import Prices are Down Despite Trump Tariffs!

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by Joe Hoft September 13, 2019

President Trump has said for years that the US was hurt by politicians that didn’t protect US jobs.  He decided to do something about and the US is winning because of it!

The far-left Washington Post wrote in August that President Trump’s tariffs will cost the average family hundreds of dollars a year –

More than a year into the U.S.-China trade war, American consumers are about to find themselves squarely in the crosshairs for the first time, with households estimated to face up to $1,000 in additional costs each year from tariffs, according to research from JPMorgan Chase.

Consumers, whose spending fuels about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, have been largely shielded from previous rounds of tariffs, which have left businesses reeling and upended global supply chains. But that’s about to change with the 10 percent levies on roughly $300 billion in Chinese imports, about a third of which will take effect Sept. 1. Those tariffs will primarily target consumer goods.

But it was just more fake news from the far left Washington Post.

Sorry liberals, Trump’s tariffs are having little to no impact on the cost of goods to the consumer.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that the costs of imports actually went down in August.

Prices for U.S. imports fell 0.5 percent in August following a 0.1-percent increase in July and a 1.1-percent decline in June. With the exception of the August and June decreases, U.S. import prices advanced in each month of 2019. Despite the increases, the price index for U.S. imports declined 2.0 percent from August 2018 to August 2019. (See table 1.)

Fuel Imports: Import fuel prices decreased 4.3 percent in August, after rising 0.7 percent the previous month. Prices for import fuel fell 11.1 percent over the past 3 months. In August, lower petroleum prices more than offset higher prices for natural gas. The price index for import petroleum declined 4.8 percent, after increasing 0.9 percent the previous month. Fuel prices decreased 8.7 percent over the past 12 months; prices for import petroleum fell 9.6 percent over the same period. The price index for natural gas imports rose 16.0 percent in August, after declines in each of the previous 4 months. Despite the August increase, natural gas prices fell 6.1 percent over the past year.

All Imports Excluding Fuel: Prices for nonfuel imports were unchanged for the second consecutive month in August following 0.3-percent decreases in both June and May. In August, lower prices for foods, feeds, and beverages and nonfuel industrial supplies and materials were offset by price increases for automotive vehicles and consumer goods. Prices for nonfuel imports declined 1.0 percent over the past 12 months, led by price decreases for industrial supplies and materials and capital goods.

President Trump said years ago what he would do years ago about China to stop their theft of American jobs – tax China 25%.

Winning, Winning, Winning!

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Study: Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal Would Cost Over $600,000 Per Household in the United States

by Cassandra Fairbanks February 25, 2019

The Green New Deal would bankrupt the nation, according to a new study that found it would cost up to $94 trillion dollars to implement.

A study from the American Action Forum found that, in a conservative estimate, it would cost over $600,000 per household over a ten year period.

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The study explains that the “heart of the GND is an effort to curb carbon emissions and thus to slow climate change, but the package contains a wide set of other policy proposals that are not directly linked to climate policy: a job guarantee, food and housing security, and a variety of social justice initiatives.”

Since much of the GND is extremely vague, the study focused on the proposals for:

  1. A 10-year transition to an exclusively low-carbon energy electricity grid;
  2. Enough high-speed rail transit available that air travel becomes unnecessary;
  3. Guaranteeing union jobs with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States;
  4. Universal health care;
  5. Guaranteed housing for every American; and
  6. Food security for every person in the United States.

The Free Beacon reports that the American Action Forum calculated guaranteed green housing would cost between $1.6 trillion and $4.2 trillion; a federal jobs guarantee between $6.8 trillion and $44.6 trillion; a net zero emissions transportation system between $1.3 trillion and $2.7 trillion; a low-carbon electricity grid for $5.4 trillion; and “food security” for $1.5 billion.

“The American Action Forum’s analysis shows that the Green New Deal would bankrupt the nation,” Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, told the Free Beacon.

“On the upper end, every American household would have to pay $65,000 per year to foot the bill,” he said. “The total price tag would be $93 trillion over 10 years. That is roughly four times the value of all Fortune 500 companies combined. That’s no deal.”

Barrasso’s office estimates it would also skyrocket electric bills by up to $3,800 per year.

Overall, the study found that the burden to taxpayers would be roughly $361,010 and $653,010 for each American household over 10 years.

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Interview with a French Yellow Vest protester: “We will fight until the elites fall”

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Exclusive interview with the French Yellow Vest ‘Pierre’ in Paris by Swedish journalist and writer Katerina Janouch.

(Pierre is not his real name – and he wants to remain anonymous because he is worried about otherwise risking his job). He wants change in France, and he has participated in most of the protests that the Yellow Vests have arranged in Paris.

Katerina asks how his dedication began. “I was tired of sitting at home doing nothing”, he says. “So, therefore, I went out into the streets when the Yellow Vest protests started a few months ago. It felt good to be involved and make a difference.”

Last weekend was messy, Pierre confirms, a group of maybe 100 Antifa supporters were looking to pick a fight. “They are useful idiots of the elite and the police ignore them, and at the same time they attack us peaceful protesters.”

“But there is also a difference in whom you come across. The regular cops are respectful, while the BAC (Brigade Anti Criminalité) are aggressive and don’t know how to handle the protesters.”

“They don’t wear official uniforms, but jeans and black helmets and they are the ones who use violence against ordinary unarmed people. Every time I see them, I cover my face because they shoot flash-balls and they also use other kinds of weapons that are lethal.”

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“And there is no justice. One guy threw pâté at the police, he got four months in prison. For throwing pâté! While another who drove into the protesters with the intention of harming people only got a one month suspended sentence.”

“People with yellow vests are judged harder. They try to scare us as much as they can, they use violence and legal penalties against us citizens who protest against the abuse of power.”

Pierre develops his opinion on Macron and the goal of the French Yellow Vests: “Of course we want Macron to resign – but it is not enough to replace him, it is not the solution. For years we have elected different politicians but the result has been the same. They are traitors, they don’t do things that benefit the French people.”

“Macron’s agenda is complete. He was elected by the elite and he destroys France’s sovereignty. For example, it has been said that there is no French culture…”

Katerina breaks in: “A number of Swedish politicians have said that as well. That there is no Swedish culture.”

“It is because they want to wipe out the nation states”, says Pierre. “Weaken the unity of the people and thereby make it easy to control them.”

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“Macron and his followers are globalists, they don’t care about the French people. When he was elected, it was as a result of something that could be likened to exhaustion.”

“People were sick of the right and of the left. They were hoping for something new, but they were also intimidated by the media, which painted a picture that there would be chaos if Marine Le Pen’s Front National came to power. And Macron was portrayed as a hero. People wanted change and saw Macron as someone who could give them that.”

Former President François Hollande has been described as an extremely unpopular politician. However, Hollande’s unpopularity fades when one sees and hears how the French people react to Macron today.

“Macron is really despised”, says Pierre. “Wherever he goes, people boo, he can’t go anywhere without being criticised and scolded. I can’t see that he’ll stay in power for three years. He has offended the French too much, over and over again, accusing his own people of being lazy, alcoholics and so on…”

So what do you want to achieve? Macron’s resignation, and what else?

“We want direct democracy”, says Pierre. “The constitution must be amended. If there are laws we disagree with, we should be able to repeal them.”

“If the politicians don’t work for us, we should be able to get rid of them. The battle will be hard, it’s we the people against the elites, and they hold on to what they have, they don’t want to let go of their power. But we will fight until they fall.”

Do you want France to leave the EU?

“Yes, I want Frexit, many Yellow Vests want it, although not everyone. But I’m tired of French laws being dictated by Brussels.”

“Those of us who want Frexit don’t want Brussels to control and make decisions about France without us having anything to say about it. And I don’t trust the politicians in Brussels. They don’t act in the interest of the people.”

“In the past I believed in the EU. But now that I see what they have done with Europe, I don’t want it anymore. The EU is not working for the good of the Europeans. Juncker sits there and speaks with contempt of the people, disempowering them.”

“They’re threatening that there will be chaos if the countries leave the EU. They scare people. But what is the chaos? I believe in a pure trade union, not a superiority that interferes in how the countries are governed and questions freedom of expression and so on.”

“We need a Bruxit – to get rid of the bureaucrats who work for lobby organisations, and replace them with people who work for Europe’s best. But it’s not easy, these systems are so ingrained.”

See the source image

Nevertheless, Pierre believes a change for the better will come. “Macron is the last symbol of globalism, we see how these elites fall. Like Merkel. Instead, Salvini, Trump, Kurz in Austria are elected… more and more countries are starting to wake up.”

“We will not give up! We are full of fighting spirit and strong in the knowledge that the people always prevails in the end. They don’t want more abuse of power and a detached elite who controls them. We want direct democracy, an opportunity to remove politicians who harm the country, and to tear up laws that don’t benefit our people.”

“We won’t give up. If nothing else, we will fight for those who have been injured, for people who lost their eyes and others who have been beaten up and assaulted. Their injuries will not be in vain.”

What do you want to say to the Yellow Vests in other countries?

“You must organise yourselves, and stand united. We are fighting large systems, but we are also growing into a powerful worldwide movement. Don’t stop fighting! The more protesters there are, the stronger we become. Don’t give up! Bon Courage!”

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Tear gas fired as Yellow Vests and police clash in French city of Rouen (VIDEOS)

Yellow Vests in Rouen as the street fills with tear gas.

French police have deployed tear gas in a bid to quell Yellow Vest protesters in a tense stand-off in the city of Rouen in Normandy.

Demonstrations quickly spiralled out of control in the northern French city on Saturday as protesters and riot police clashed in the streets of the picturesque town.

Journalist Simon Louvet, who is in Rouen, tweeted: “The GJ (Gilet Jaunes) are in the streets around Jeanne D’Arc Street and are gassed, they flee running and regroup.”are gassed, they flee running and regroup.”

The protesters also set fire to the entrance of the local office of the Bank of France, the country’s central bank.

Away from the violence, a large group of protesters also marched through the streets, waving French flags and chanting slogans.

Paris, the scene of the most dramatic demonstrations since the rallies began in November, was significantly quieter than previous weeks but it also saw dozens of Yellow Vests gathered on Champs-Elysees on Saturday.

On Thursday, a group of the protesters attempted to storm the Mediterranean castle that serves as President Emmanuel Macron’s summer retreat.

The weeks of demonstrations have polarized France. The movement began as rallies against fuel-price hikes, but it soon morphed into nationwide protests against government policies.

The fuel hikes were scrapped by the government but people have continued to demand more concessions, including lower taxes and even Macron’s resignation.

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No French Revolution in America

By Kurt Nimmo

More than 80% of the people of France—ordinary working people, not the professional bureaucrate class—support the “gilets jaunes,” the yellow vests in the street protesting against the globalist policies of Emmanuel Macron, defender of the mega-wealthy and upholder of EU progressivism.

The establishment media in the US and Europe are focusing on the violence of the protests—including vandalism of the Arc de Triomphe (which is a monument to war and French colonialism)—and underplaying the political and economic complaints central to the demonstrations.

It is a decentralized movement sans leaders (who can be picked off or compromised) in direct opposition to the agenda of the global elite: carbon taxes in response to “climate change” (as if additional parasitical fleecing of the public can modify weather), preferential treatment of financial class interests, unchecked and irrational immigration practices threatening the long-standing cultural customs of western civilization, an eroding economy, growing poverty and unemployment.

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No doubt much of the violence is the work of agent provocateurs in addition to dim-witted “anarchists,” who are nothing of the sort. Lobbing billiard balls and cobblestones at police, torching an art museum, vandalizing national monuments, and destroying private property provide a suitable pretext to impose yet another “state of emergency”—France is renowned for its pouvoirs exceptionnels, that is to say its “exceptional powers,” in other words the state using its monopoly of violence to address serious political and social issues.

Article 16 of the French Constitution is a hangover from France’s colonialist past, specifically its disastrous war in Algeria. It allows the government to declare a state of emergency during an état de siège, never mind the siege is the result of policies imposed by the state and the ruling class.

After attending the globalist G20 soirée in Buenos Aires, Macron paraded along the Champs-Élysée to witness first-hand the vandalism. Following this public display of pomp and photo-op, Macron declared yet another state of emergency will be declared in response to public support for the yellow vests, the vast majority nonviolent.

Spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said the president is willing to talk to the yellow vests. He stressed, however, there will be no backing down from his “green agenda,” that is to say further taxing the French people (soon to rival Belgium and Germany in the art of  confiscation) and ensuring more unemployment, poverty, and social stress—exacerbated by unchecked third world immigration—that will ultimately tear France apart.

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As soon as Trump is out of the way, Democrats and globalist friendly Republicans will impose similar green taxation and regulation on the American people. However, there is a distinct difference between grumpy French and indolent Americans. The former will go into the street and make their demands known, while the latter are too busy binge watching Netflix to be bothered.

In America, protest and outrage are now stage managed by the state and promoted by a corporate media. The economy and endless war do not figure into these protests orchestrated by faux leftists. Instead, these foundation lubricated activists are moved to outrage and occasional violence by the color of skin, the preference of gender (real, manufactured, and imagined), and a litany of exaggerated and invented victimization.

I say faux leftists because today’s SJW dimwits have little in common with old school Marxists and socialists. They were primarily focused on “historical materialism,” the means of production, the plight of the proletariat, and class consciousness.

Now? Marxism has become “cultural,” that is to say based on what’s between your legs, the color of your skin (this used to be rightfully called racism), and the “human right” to force one group of people to pay for the care and lifestyle of others (including sexual mutilation and abortion). This has led to calls for authoritarianism and violence against the “privileged”—not the banksters and the ruling elite, mind you, but white men in general. This absurdity is megaphoned 24/7 by the corporate media.

No, there will not be a French Revolution in America. The people here are well-indoctrinated, dumbed-down by “public education,” fed lies and fantasies (the Russians are coming, Trump is the New Hitler), and other distractions, including a decadent in-your-face “entertainment” industry feeding on perversity, violence (while calling for disarmament), promotion of homosexuality, and the normalization of vulgarity.

Certainly, when the Everything Bubble bursts and misery is rampant, Americans may go into the street, but it will be too late. Meanwhile, many shake their heads at those crazy French, outraged over the economic strip-mining of their country and the globalist mandates of the European Union.

This will be wiped away, however, by the next episode of Game of Thrones or the Walking Dead.

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Images of students’ arrests ‘shocking’, France in ‘exceptional violence’ – education minister

Images of students’ arrests ‘shocking’, France in ‘exceptional violence’ – education minister

French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer admitted that the images of students on their knees, while being arrested by baton-wielding officers are “shocking.”

The controversial video from Mantes-la-Jolie released late Thursday has been a hot topic of discussion on social media. Depicting rows of education reform protesters on their knees, hands on heads, with helmeted police officers, it gathered thousands of retweets and angry comments. Many users compared the manner the officers were handling the arrestees with execution by firing squad.

READ MORE: Paris warns radicals are trying to exploit Yellow Vests & overthrow the government

On Friday morning, French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer was asked by France Inter radio to give his opinion on the video.

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By “climate of exceptional violence” he was referring to Yellow Vest protests that have been gripping the nation for the third consecutive week. Big rallies are expected this Saturday and authorities are gathering re-enforcements in the face of 89,000 police officers and armored vehicles belonging to Gendarmerie, the country’s military police.

Blanquer called upon those who react to the footage to analyze the situation in this context. “What happened? There are those who don’t attend these high schools, they are more than 20 years old … and they manage to gather students [in these schools],” he said. These very people attacked police officers, who tried to neutralize them and line them up against a wall, he added.

READ MORE: ‘Like execution by firing squad’: VIDEO of French students’ arrest by armed police stirs OUTRAGE

The minister insisted that it was “a miracle” that Mantes-la-Jolie clashes didn’t result in any deaths. Meanwhile, the Yellow Vest rallies that gripped the nation last Saturday turned violent, resulting in the deaths of four people.

Thursday’s clashes resulted in 153 arrests and most of them were students. Similar clashes happened across the whole of France, and as of Friday some 700 high schools across the country were disturbed by protests and 400 of them were closed.

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Elysee fears ‘putschists’, coup attempt during Yellow Vests protests this weekend – media

Elysee fears ‘putschists’, coup attempt during Yellow Vests protests this weekend – media

With more Yellow Vests protests approaching this weekend Elysee Palace is worried about a possible coup attempt. Calls have been made to attack parliamentarians and police forces, French media report.

Even though the French government abandoned the fuel tax hike after sweeping protests, the movement still calls upon its followers to gather on December 8. “The Act IV” will be held under the motto “we stay on our course.” The Facebook event has already counted 6,000 people who wish to participate and 22,000 others who are “interested.”

READ MORE: ‘Hypocrite’: Macron takes heat over Twitter post on ‘pollution deaths’ in France

On Thursday Eric Drouet one of the movement’s most famous leaders announced the Yellow Vests plans to approach the residence of Emmanuel Macron. “Saturday will be the final outcome, Saturday is the Elysee, we all would like to go to the Elysee,” he said.

ALSO ON RT.COMFrench parliament’s left parties to discuss vote of no confidence against governmentThe intelligence services have reported to the Elysee Palace, the official residence of the president, that there have been “calls to kill” and “carry arms to attack” parliamentarians, government officials and police officers, Le Figaro newspaper said on Thursday.

“They are putschists. [There is] a coup attempt,” a source claimed. The ministry has even been reportedly instructed to forbid its staff and ministers from working this weekend.

Security forces were also tipped that Saturday’s demonstrations may be hit by unprecedented violence caused by both “radicalized…extreme right and extreme left,” Le Figaro added.

Yellow Vest protests, named after high-visibility jackets all drivers in France must carry in their vehicles, are entering their third week. Started as unprompted rallies called on social media against fuel price hikes and Macron’s unpopular reforms, they have evolved into one of the most dangerous challenges for the nation in recent decades.

December 1 protests turned violent across the whole country and saw over 130 people injured and more than 400 arrested. Four people, including an elderly woman, died amid the fierce clashes between rioters and officers.

ALSO ON RT.COM5 striking VIDEOS that reveal the violence & compassion of France’s Yellow Vest protestsThe French government had to concede to the protesters’ demands and abandoned the fuel tax hike plan – at least for the 2019 budget. However, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe who broke the news, did not clarify whether Paris might reintroduce the hike in a budget update later in 2019.

The real problem lies in the government that has lost touch with its people, Yellow Vest protesters recently told RT. The government has to “put humane attitude first, and not the money,” one more demonstrator said. Another added that they “would prefer to be at work, than to find [themselves] on the streets shouting, hoping for nothing.”

According to Jean Bricmont, a French writer and political commentator, the fiery protests have more to do with the “incompetent,” EU-dependent government policy than the rising gas prices. “The revolt is not just about the gas prices, it’s a general revolt against the policy of the government,” he told RT.

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Paris abandons fuel tax hike after sweeping protests – French PM

Paris abandons fuel tax hike after sweeping protests – French PM

The French government says it has dropped the fuel tax hike plan that has sparked massive Yellow Vests protests and eventually got suspended with a half-year moratorium Tuesday – at least for the 2019 budget.

“The government is ready for dialogue and is showing it because this tax increase has been dropped from the 2019 budget bill,” French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told the lower house of parliament Wednesday.

Philippe did not clarify whether Paris might re-introduce the hike in a budget update later in 2019.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

ALSO ON RT.COMFrance’s Yellow Vest movement strikes a victory for working people across the EU

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