Texas Leftists

left unity | communism will win ☭

[Noah Garfinkel @NoahGarfinkel]

Billionaires are always like, “Raising taxes on billionaires won’t work because we��ll be huge fucking bitches about it.”

[Fuck You I Quit @fuckyouiquit]

These 6 used that money to pay Wall Street $12.6 Billion in dividends and stock buybacks last quarter alone, all while laying off thousands of workers, raising premiums, and lowering coverage. This system of profiteering off our health needs to end.

[Ali Ramos Abdul Hakam - Canal Vento Leste @Ali_Ramos_Hakam]

Se fosse na Rússia, chamariam de oligarcas.

[swagner @BayouBikeyBoi]

The plan? Fund the entire city government with water and sewage utilities rates so you can say you didn’t raise taxes

[Monoculture Debatteur @NotADebacle]

There's so much more of this going on than anyone realizes because they completely gutted the regulatory enforcement capacity of the state to stop it

[Seed Oil Disrespecter™️ @SeedOilDsrspctr]

This, basically everywhere

[mighty-lizard-king @mightylzrdking]

Houston can learn a lot from Paris’ strides in pollution reduction. Remember: this is a public health and a quality of life issue.

[acidburns @TheAcidBurns3]

Shrinkflation pisses me off so bad because not only are you ripping me off but you're gaslighting me. I go talking about how there's less crackers in each sleeve and people treat me like I'm crazy. What's actually crazy is what we're putting up with from these corpos.

[one dozen bats at a keyboard @PanasonicDX4500]

“Forever War” but it’s just Trump constantly threatening to revoke/extend the ceasefire so his administration can do insider trading while you pay $5 a gallon for gas.

[Janel Comeau 🍁 @VeryBadLlama]

make sure you choose a password that contains capital letters, numbers, and special symbols so that someday the data broker who purchases your info can go "ooh good password" after your login details are inevitably leaked in a data breach you can do nothing to prevent

[swagner @BayouBikeyBoi]

Mostly it’s a government jobs program and handout to large highway building firms that donate to governors reelection campaign

[Josh Mound @JoshTBVO]

The idea of “low-tax” red states is a myth. Lower-income and working-class people pay higher taxes in Texas than in California. Middle-class people pay about the same in both states. Rich people pay much lower taxes in Texas.

[Ricardo @Ric_RTP]

Amazon just got caught running a secret price manipulation operation with Levi's, Home Depot, Walmart, and many more.

Every time you "comparison shopped" online, you were looking at prices that were already rigged.

Here's what happened:

Amazon would monitor prices on Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Chewy in real time. The second a competitor listed a product cheaper than Amazon, they'd contact the brand directly and tell them to "fix it."

And the exact emails are now PUBLIC.

Amazon sent Levi's links to two Walmart listings with the subject line "styles of concern." They basically said the prices on Walmart are too low and we have a problem.

The next day, Levi's responded: "I talked to Walmart and they have partnered with us to take Easy Khaki Classic fit back up to ladder SPP price, $29.99 immediately."

Levi's literally called Walmart and told them to raise the price. Because Amazon told Levi's to make the call.

Walmart complied. Then Amazon matched the HIGHER price.

Both retailers ended up charging more. The customer paid extra. Nobody competed.

Same playbook with Hanes:

Amazon sent them links showing Target and Walmart prices were lower. Hanes confirmed they "reached out to Target and Walmart to have the prices increased."

Target increased the prices. Walmart increased the prices. Amazon kept their margins.

But it gets even worse...

Amazon told Allergan (the company that makes eye drops) that their product was "suppressed" on Amazon because it was cheaper on another site.

Allergan responded: "Walmart got their price back up to $16.99." Amazon then unsuppressed the listing.

They did this with pet treats on Chewy. Furniture on Home Depot. Products across dozens of categories spanning YEARS.

The mechanism is simple but terrifying:

If you're a brand and you sell cheaper on Walmart than on Amazon, Amazon suppresses your product, removes you from the Buy Box, buries you in search results, and effectively makes you invisible to 300 million customers.

Brands can't afford that. So they call Walmart and Target and say "raise your prices or we'll lose our Amazon listings."

Walmart and Target comply because they need the brand's products.

Amazon captures 40 cents of every dollar spent online in America. That gives them the leverage to set prices across THE ENTIRE internet. Not just their own platform.

So turns out, you were never comparison shopping.

You were looking at a coordinated price floor set by Amazon through backroom phone calls between brands and their competitors.

"Amazon is working to make your life more unaffordable."

3 separate antitrust trials are now scheduled for 2027. The FTC has its own case. 18 states plus the DOJ are piling on.

This is literally happening during the WORST affordability crisis in a generation. Groceries up 25% since 2020. Housing unaffordable. Wages flat.

And the largest ecommerce company on Earth has been secretly coordinating with brands to make sure you can't find a cheaper price ANYWHERE.

"Competition" in retail is just a fantasy.

[Dion @2024dion]

TXDOT will either build HSR on this corridor in the next couple decades, or else spend the next 100 years spending tens of billions on widening and re-widening the freeway to no avail

[swagner @BayouBikeyBoi]

Texas is a fun place because its leaders act like its major cities are all podunk one stoplight cow towns incapable of supporting modern infrastructure found in global cities a fraction of the size

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

Dems have been playing this same simple game for years with their gullible followers. They pretend to want something their "base" wants, but always manage to fall a few votes short. Gosh darn! Vote Dem next time and we'll get it for you! I wrote in 2010:

https://t.co/e7q9nMxGBs

[☠️ Lilith Lovett ☠️ same @ on 💙☁️🦋 @LilithLovett]

They illegally stole YOUR money and now they’re giving it to the corporate donors who raised YOUR prices and made YOU pay for it. 🤬

[faraz 🏀 @farazamiruddin]

Driving is the MOST government-dependent form of transportation.

You’re using a state-issued license to operate a state-registered machine on 100% state-owned land, subsidized by taxpayers.

Freedom is not needing a government permission slip & 40k machine to get around.