Inflation is out of control, but a new report says that price gouging is even worse. Mike Papantonio is joined by journalist & podcast host, Rick Outzen, to discuss. link - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/27/inflation-corporate-america-increased-prices-profits Subscribe to our podcast: http://www.ROFPodcast.com Become a member today!: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWIEbibRcZav6xMLo9qWWw/join Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!: https://www.patreon.com/TheRingofFire Find our merchandise at Teespring: https://teespring.com/stores/rof-store Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content! Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/theringoffire Be sociable! Follow us on: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RingofFireRadio Twitter: https://twitter.com/RingofFireMedia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ringoffirenetwork/ *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Inflation's outta control, but a new report says that price gouging is even worse. God, if this doesn't just infuriate you, I don't know what would. Go ahead and jump in on this story. Well, you know, we've heard, we've been told that business are victims of the economy. The pandemics hurt 'em. The supply chain has caused shortages. They've, government spending is driving inflation up. Ukraine, the war in Ukraine is driving it. Mm-hmm. And what we're finding is even though they have selling fewer cars, less gas, their profits are hitting record numbers. Incredible. And, and they're buying back their stock. They're giving out huge dividends. Well, okay. So here their, their narrative is, I mean, Lord have mercy, the narratives all over the place that this is being caused by Russia. That gee, this isn't our fault. And you know what, we're doing everything we can to fight it. Well, Guardian, the Guardian took a real, they put some forensic people in there to see really what's going on and it's anything but that. The, the mar the profit margin has been raised 50%. Right. Since all, since they started this narrative. And as you, as you say, what that's about is with that profit margin, they're able to buy back stock. And that increases the value of the company. And not only that, they're able to pay dividends to shareholders and dividends and, and shareholders keep. And when the stock goes up, the corporate, the CEOs, their packages get better. Yeah. Because they get more stock. They can sell off their stock when they leave. Their parachutes get much, much healthier. Chevron, 240%. Right, I see that. Spike in profits, 240%. As a matter of fact, it's the best, they had the best two quarters that they've had in the history of the company. Right. Nike, you know, the, the public social responsibility company, 51% increase, and it's still continuing to climb. Steel Dynamics, this is a company that touches almost everything that's made with steel. Right. Their profit margin jumped 809%, 809% is their profit increase since all this started. Dr. Pepper, 83%. You know, you're looking at Hershey's, your Reese cups. Yeah. They have gone up 62%. They did a $200 million stock buyback. Yeah. At Hershey's. You know, here's the point. These are companies that have massive capital. Right. They can operate in, they can operate in low profit times. If they, if they were asked to do it, if they're forced to do it, if Biden would take some action and punish a few of them, and they got the picture, it's not like they're gonna go out of business or even have any difficulty during this downtime. They have, they have this massive amount of money that's put into their company that's available to them anytime. But rather than doing that, what's, what's socially responsible, they say, well, we're just gonna, we're just gonna rape and pillage right now because we can. Right. And, and, and you know, anybody who challenges 'em you, we're called business bashers. If you try to question it. Bernie Sanders has caught on to this. Elizabeth Warren has caught onto it some. But they're voices in the wilderness. It's not, there's not a lot of momentum out there. You know, so what ends up happening is what they're trying to do and this is really scary is to create a new norm. In other words, once you get used to paying that higher. Right. That higher thing for a box of cereal, you're used to it. And so you're gonna do it anyway. And when, when you have, when you have competition that's not there because one company owns all the cereal. Right. It's not as if a competitor's gonna come in and say, well, we're not selling our cereal for as much money. So buy our cereal. There's not an alternative. Right. The alternatives are so limited. #rof #trofire #theringoffire #progressivenews ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJtVAZm9Cyo

Republican Representative Lauren Boebert was humiliated into deleting a tweet this week where she said that the only way to stop the Delta variant of the Coronavirus is to turn off CNN and vote for Republicans. The backlash that she received across the social media world led her to be shamed into deleting the idiotic statement, but the damage had already been done. The Delta variant, and the original virus, still need to be taken seriously, and Boebert's attempt to downplay the crisis shows that she isn't serious enough to be a real leader. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this. Link - https://www.rawstory.com/gops-lauren-boebert-faces-brutal-backlash-over-unbelievably-ignorant-tweet-about-19/ Become a member today!: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWIEbibRcZav6xMLo9qWWw/join Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!: https://www.patreon.com/TheRingofFire Find our merchandise at Teespring: https://teespring.com/stores/rof-store Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content! Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/theringoffire Be sociable! Follow us on: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RingofFireRadio Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RingofFireRadio Google+: http://plus.google.com/118415831573195648557 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ringoffirenetwork/ Follow more of our stories at http://www.TROFIRE.com Subscribe to our podcast: http://www.ROFPodcast.com *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Republican representative Lauren Boebert was basically humiliated this week to the point where she actually had to delete one of her idiotic tweets about the Delta variant of the Coronavirus. Here is what Lauren Boebert had said on Twitter. The easiest way to make the Delta variant go away is to turn off CNN and vote Republican. So she thinks it's, what, media hype, totally made up. After everything we've been through for the last 15 months, this idiot still has the audacity to go out there and be like, oh, the media is over-hyping this, 600,000 Americans are dead, Lauren, 600,000. The economy has been cratered here in the United States because of this virus. People spent over a year stuck inside their homes because of this virus. This is not fake. This is not media hype. This is not hyperbole. This is a global pandemic that is still going on. And in some cases, like Arkansas, just reported their highest infectious day in the last four months. Fauci warning us this week that we're about to see two Americas due to the discrepancy in the number ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkUpDWA5Zv0

If the leaked SCOTUS draft holds, Mitch McConnell said that it is "possible" that a national abortion ban could happen in the future. This is exactly what Republicans have been wanting for decades, and their plans are closer to becoming reality than we ever thought they could be. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains the latest developments as we await the final word from the Supreme Court. Link - https://thehill.com/news/senate/3480725-mcconnell-says-national-abortion-ban-possible/ Become a member today!: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWIEbibRcZav6xMLo9qWWw/join Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!: https://www.patreon.com/TheRingofFire Find our merchandise at Teespring: https://teespring.com/stores/rof-store Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content! Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/theringoffire Be sociable! Follow us on: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RingofFireRadio Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RingofFireRadio Google+: http://plus.google.com/118415831573195648557 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ringoffirenetwork/ Follow more of our stories at http://www.TROFIRE.com Subscribe to our podcast: http://www.ROFPodcast.com *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Senate minority leader. Mitch McConnell has made it very clear that if this leaked draft of the SCOTUS decision that effectively overturns Roe versus Wade, if that stays, if that stands, if that is the final decision coming from that court, then Mitch McConnell says, Hey, it's a possibility that we conservatives work on a nationwide abortion ban. Here is what McConnell specifically said, uh, in an interview with USA today, if the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies, not only at the state level, but at the federal level, certainly could legislate in that area. And if this were the final decision, that was the point that it should be resolved one way or another in the legislative process. So, yeah, it's possible with regard to the abortion issue. I think it's pretty clear where Senate Republicans stand and if, and when the court makes a final decision, I expect everybody will be more definitive, but I don't think it's much secret where Senator Republicans stand on this issue. So there you have it. That is the Republican plan here. He's like, you guys know where we stand on this. Okay. So he's, he's making it very clear, like y'all know where we're at. Y'all know what we want to do. And if this decision stands and of course, if Republica ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5LHKddHNBM

Republican Senator Bob Corker accidentally admitted why members of his Party refuse to stand up to Donald Trump this week, when he said that conservative voters (the most hardcore and extreme ones) only want to see loyalty to Trump. This means that the entire country has to suffer as a result of Republicans pandering to the smallest fraction of their Party because they don’t want to make waves. This will cost them dearly in the midterms, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.   Link – https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/sen-bob-corker-gop-voters-dont-care-issues-now-want-tribal-loyalty-trump/ Ring of Fire needs your help! Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!: https://www.patreon.com/TheRingofFire Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content! Republican Senator Bob Corker let it slip this week why members of his party refused to stand up to Donald Trump. During an interview with the Washington Examiner, Bob Corker said that when he's out on the campaign trail, when he's talking to people, they're not asking about issues. They don't care about what's happening in the world. They're only asking him, are you with Trump or not? And they want to hear that he's with Trump. And the same is true for Republicans all over this country. It's no longer about the issues. The Republican base, the hardcore alt-right part of the Republican base, a small fraction of it, just wants to know if you're loyal to Trump or not because that's all they need in order to vote for you. And that's why these spineless, disgusting Republican pigs refuse to stand up to Donald Trump or to demand deeper investigations into what this man has been accused of doing, whether its with the sexual assault, the harassment, the defamation, the collusion investigation. They won't touch any of that because, if they do, they could lose a very tiny small little fraction of their voting base. These Republicans, by Bob Corker's own admission here, are more beholden to the alt-right, to the one percent of one percent of right wing voters than they are to the American public. Donald Trump is inflicting very real damage on this country. That's undeniable. And he's doing it with the help of the Republicans. He couldn't do everything that he's done without their complacency on this. But he's doing it anyway because they're going right along with him. They don't want to stand up to him. They don't to tell him that his idea for a border wall is stupid. They don't want to tell him that you can't ban Muslims from entering the country, not because they don't believe it or because they're against it, but because they don't want go against him, because then they have to go answer to those crazy people in their base, the crazy people who stand up and say, "Why did you go against Donald Trump? Now I can't vote for you because I'm an idiot voter." They're afraid of those people. That's what this is about. Bob Corker's little admission here is about more than, you know, just policies or what his base is feeling right now. It's about what's going to happen to these morons when they go back for re-election this year and get their asses handed to them in the midterms, because moderate Republicans, the few Republican people out there that don't believe in the crazy things that the alt-right believes, they just don't want government interference in things. They're not going to vote for these crazy Republicans again. They've already said that according to polls. Democrats across the board have an eight-point advantage in generic polls heading into the midterms. And, yeah, that advantage has slipped a little. But it's still eight points. Republicans understand that. They know they're in trouble but they refuse to do anything about it, because doing something about it means you have to stand up to Donald Trump and then, god forbid, you're going to lose all those racist voters from the alt-right. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unCSF5HxSyk