@RepLuna But Anna, it's the government that's allowing it. The EPA, the FDA.... Are you not going after the wrong people? Sometimes there needs to be accountability, not just passing the buck.
@mattfrye87@unusual_whales One is in Monrovia/Belleville just off of 70. One is planned for Pendleton. Indy just issued a moratorium and I hope the rest of the system follows suit.
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.
🚨 THIS IS INSANE.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's sons could be making 3 to 5x returns on every dollar they spent buying tariff refund rights.
Cantor Fitzgerald, now run by Lutnick's sons Brandon and Kyle, was buying tariff refund claims from companies at 20 to 30 cents on the dollar.
The firm told clients it had "capacity to trade up to several hundred million" in these claims.
They confirmed at least one $10 million trade was already executed as of July 2025. They said they expected that number to "balloon in the coming weeks." That was 9 months ago.
Today those claims are worth 100 cents on the dollar. The refund portal is live, $166 billion in refunds are being processed.
If Cantor bought $100 million in refund rights at 25 cents on the dollar, they spent $25 million.
They now collect $100 million from the government. That is a $75 million profit. A 300% return.
If they scaled to "several hundred million" as they told clients they could, the profits run into the hundreds of millions.
Howard Lutnick was the architect of the tariff policy.
He pushed Trump to impose them. He fought against officials who wanted to limit them. Then he left Cantor Fitzgerald to his sons and transferred his equity into a trust benefiting them.
Tax free under government ethics rules. He received $360 million from the buyout.
His sons positioned the firm to profit from the exact policy their father built.
Their father publicly championed tariffs he knew could be struck down while his sons were buying refund claims betting they would be.
@thewildkore@WarMonitors He got a lot if not most of his followers from Elon promoting him as a good source to follow before quickly not promoting him.