Open Thread - Thurs 03 Apr 2025 - Eggs and the Fight
Eggs and the Fight
Recently Matt Stoller's newsletter, Big, started a series of articles about the egg 'crisis' here in the USA and the entities behind it. It's a very good couple of articles, written by Basel Musharbash. The first article is entitled 'Hatching a Conspiracy: A BIG Investigation into Egg Prices'. The second article, 'Fowl Play: How Chicken Genetics Barons Created the Egg Crisis' goes into the two, yes only two, companies that control chicken genetics and the production of egg laying hens.
Image from Hatching a Conspiracy: A BIG Investigation into Egg Prices.
Musharbash writes in the introduction to his second article:
In part one, I offered a basic explanation of why a dozen eggs — which cost around 70-90 cents to produce — are now so pricey. The short story is that a small number of actors have secured chokepoints at key links in the egg supply chain, and are using them to keep egg production throttled even in the face of shortages and high prices — which in turn keeps the shortages and high prices going.
In part two, I’m going to get more specific, and explore something most people don’t even realize is a product — chicken genetics for layer hens. But just because most people don’t know this product exists doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. After all, without the hen, you don’t get any eggs! And as it turns out, two secretive European firms — almost out of a Bond movie — now manage the global industry that breeds hens tailored for egg production.
These articles are really good, I'm looking forward to the third piece in the series. I recommend reading both articles in full, they are long, but worth it. And then, buy some free-range organic eggs from a small producer, if you can 
.
In other things to read:
Lee Camp wrote a pretty good article recently about why a lot of the protests we are seeing against Trump (and his besties) don't really matter. He goes into how other presidents, like Biden and Obama, have done much of the same thing Trump is doing, sometimes even worse. The protests have to be against the system, the system has to be fought.
Me, I really dislike Trump, mostly because I despise Elon Musk and always have. But then, I really disliked Biden and Obama (lying sack of ....) as well. And I hate(d) Clinton. And Bush. There seems to be a pattern here , but, sadly enough, I often feel like my protests against the system went nowhere. Maybe now's the time that protests like this can change some things? Anyway, give the article a go when you've got time. It's good!
And here's the open thread - remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!
Comments
Happy Thursday!!
Hope everyone is having a great day and looking forward to a good weekend. What's up with you all?
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Speaking of eggs
Found this clip about straw houses.
For chickens. Can't seem to embed.
https://x.com/Farm_With_Art/status/1907394250716705135?ref_src=twsrc%5Et...
Thanks for the OT!
PS - we get most of our eggs from local friends and stands (when the hens are laying). They slow down
when it is too hot or too cold.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Tweet
I still have problems embedding tweets, but refreshing the tweet seems to correct it. Even tweets that say are not found it works. Just an FYI.
“Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon”
Is it too late to knock it back on course?
thanks snoopy
.
.
seems like a good option for the chickens and eggs
around here we have big hen houses on wheels which
are moved around in a field with wire fences
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
That's so cool!
We thought about mobile chicken houses too but went for a stationary coop. The hens are free range, they get to roam all over the property, but tend to stick to the area around the compost heap. I wonder why?
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Thanks for posting the tweet
Those hen houses are so neat!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Straw coop!
That's very cool. We have our own chickens, just a few. When we don't, or when they stop laying (we let them live until they die of old age, so they do stop laying a lot in their later years) we buy eggs from a local stand. Love the local eggs, and our own eggs. They are so much tastier, more colorful... maybe it's the worms and bugs
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
It will be interesting
to see what a bloodbath today turns into on the stock market. And tomorrow's session may be even more fraught.
I'm glad that I'm asset-free, so that I don't have to watch my own investments. Now, we just get to see if I still have a job when the chips finish falling. I'm not quite sure when the thousandth cut will occur, as we live through this national death-of-a-thousand-cuts...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
It's not looking good
https://thehill.com/business/5229763-trump-tariffs-stock-plunge/
We come from dust. We will return to dust.
That's why I don't dust. It my be someone I know.
Yup.
We haven't seen the bottom yet. Time may be short for the bubble of bubble bubbles.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
It's like Trump...
is bringing us back to the 1920s. But then, he is so ignorant of history, he probably doesn't know what happened then. Eventually the pitchforks will come out.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
dow jones is now down another 1600 points
or about 3.8%
corrective territory
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
We ain't seen
nothin', yet. It's only the worst day since 2022.
As of 12:45pm ET, the S&P 500 was off 3.7%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was off 4.8%, and the Russell 2000 was off 5.4%, down more than 20% from its late-November highs.
I suspect that tomorrow will be a complete bloodbath, as more skittish investors decide to take whatever profits they can/cut their losses before the bottom falls out- thereby precipitating the bottom falling out, of course.
About the only good thing might be if Warren Buffett decides to reinvest some of the enormous ($334 billion, as of 12/31/24!) cash pile that Berkshire Hathaway has amassed, creating an artificial level of support for one industry or another, for long enough for everybody to take a breather. Otherwise, the "buy-the-dip" crowd will probably stay on the sidelines to see what happens next, because it clearly isn't done dipping. I know that I personally wouldn't be buying anything anytime soon, assuming that I had any loose money to dump into the casino (which I certainly do not).
It is looking like the final result of the China tariffs will be ~54%, for today anyway. That will really stress the tattered remnants of the US electronic manufacturing sector, as so many components come from China these days, whether we like it or not. Things are distinctly dicey right now.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Depression two! Make America Bankrupt Again!
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
Depression Two
I like that name for the upcoming disaster, like it a lot.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I’ve watched this twice
and not once did Jeff mention NAFTA. I may be wrong, but wasn’t he involved with getting it passed?
Wolf did mention it more than once and puts the blame where it belongs. On the American businesses that didn’t want to pay Americans a living wage.
The right wing are jumping for joy because they think it’s going to bring jobs back home, but not if they have to spend billions to do it. The lawyer who runs the site has been explaining how great this is. I’ve been asking why people are taking financial advice from a lawyer and posting both videos…I’m surprised that I haven’t been banned yet. But boy do I get dawg piled. :). No one debates me. They just throw insults and call me a troll. Now that’s tribalism in action.
“Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon”
Is it too late to knock it back on course?
54%
It's unbelievable. And yet, I read that chips are not included in the tariffs. As someone who used to work in chip manufacturing and who's friends lost their jobs because of the transfer of such manufacturing to China back in the 1980's... I just have to shake my head in disbelief.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Who knows
what the China tariffs will actually cover, when all is said and done?
Right now, they will cover passive components (resistors, capacitors, inductors, connectors, batteries), the epoxy and glass mat used to make the PCBs, maybe LEDs and other diodes, and so on. Even if high-density semiconductors (microprocessors, FPGAs, memory) are somehow exempt, damned near everything else on the board with them will be affected. Same thing goes for Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and on and on.
I had emails from several vendors this morning cancelling already-accepted quotes, and informing me that I would need to requote the components for several of my projects that are in development. At this point, some of those products are no longer viable, at least if you're an MBA and only look at the total on the bottom line- they'll be more expensive than the previous generation they were due to replace.
And I'm just one nobody putz from a little tiny company. I can only imagine what is happening at (for example) Apple today. It is very painful, and it is not at all clear where this will end.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Yea, if they exempt chips
but nothing else, it's not gonna make much of a difference. And boy, are the markets reacting today. It's damned depressing.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I have stocks...
a few. I am trying to ignore what's happening, but it's not easy. One thousand cuts indeed, maybe that's just the start, maybe it'll be 10,000. Gah.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
So the market has taken a big dive
.
Tariffs and economic stuff are over my head, but doesn’t some of the blame for this fall on Clinton’s NAFTA? Companies only have to sell things to America because it doesn’t make those things here anymore. Our government has been busy wrecking the country and here we are having to import so much.
Is there a Bueller who can say if I’m wrong?
“Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon”
Is it too late to knock it back on course?
Now, this is interesting:
in the Senate, apparently 4 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with the dems to block Trump's tariffs on Canada.
Perhaps the repubs are beginning to see that, whether they like it or not, they are standing on Trump's coattails- or perhaps more accurately, his coattails are firmly wrapped around their necks.
I really didn't expect to see any repubs with the spine to cross the boss- I thought we'd have to wait for the courts to step in. It'll be fun to watch what falls out of *this*.
"The four Republicans who joined all Senate Democrats were; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Rand Paul of Kentucky."
https://archive.ph/mCZ72
Perhaps we won't need to go to war with Canada, after all. The comments on Zerohedge are, er, informative.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
EGGS-actly
China built factories and supplied cheap labor, if the technology for manufacturing was shared. So we got cheap goods in exchange for trashing our own workforce and manufacturing base. Walmart and Amazon shareholders got rich, dems chortled over how well their 401k's and Wall St. did (as seen on the Orange Satan channel). So now, after erecting a fence around the US, the rest of the world will go into an orgy of trade dealmaking and alliances excluding America. The wealthy will hop on their jets and go somewhere nice and we'll be stuck here listening to the Mewling puke dems pretend they're going to fight for us, if we send them enough money.
Speaking of the orange satan
In almost every diary about the tariffs someone blames Putin for what Trump is doing.
Of course republicans are also working for Putin and for some reason democrats have stayed silent about it.
“Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon”
Is it too late to knock it back on course?
Spot On!
your comment is perfect, thank you!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Clinton's Nafta
has a lot to do with it. Gads, I hated that thing back then, and hate it now.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning Sima, et. al. Haven't read either article yet
Used to get eggs from TJs, slightly larger than same "size" and grade at local supermarkets for a lower price. Now they too have serious scarcity issues. Now mostly get eggs from Costco in flats of 2 dz per. Sometimes we "babysit" a friends chickens while she is out of town and then we get any they lay, but there are only 4 of them and they're getting on in years and hence produce less than youngsters.
Corner the market and then constrain supply is, of course, classic capitalism. Old school anti-monopoly legislation and such would help, but cross-border efficacy is questionable. Perhaps Trump will put tariffs on the imports thereby creating a thriving domestic industry overnight or something.
It's cool here today, at least so far. We have some errands to run, including, oddly enough, Costco and will, coincidentally enugh, probably grag some juevos while we're at it. Then yard work, it's time to trim the camillias, for starts.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
wonder about the killing of a million chickens to contain
.
some avian virus. Did the same with hogs a few years back.
Cattle are probably next. An inverted form of supply control.
Humans may be next? Corn and bees are already underway.
Bio-engineering will be end of us, if the bombs don't work.
BWANGO
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
TPTB will increasingly be promoting the option of offing oneself
&nbdp;
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits...
That aspect of a “Soylent Green” dystopia is already law in a number of (supposedly) politically progressive societies.
Yep, organic, or free range eggs...
are often slightly (or a lot) bigger than the 'normal' eggs, and they have deeper yellow, sometimes almost orange, yolks. I have to admit, I don't like eggs very much, err, normal store bought eggs. But once we started up with our small flock of chickens I learned to like the eggs quite a lot.
CostCo? I have to make a run to there in a few days. We are out of 'stuff'. I did yard work today too. I've been clearing a cement border around our flower garden beds. It's 25 years old! And it's under about 2-3 inches of dirt and grass now. Heh.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Eggs and the internet
...seem to have parallels. This is a must see history of the surveillance industry. The author Yasha Levine ties together the history of the internet and the roles it plays.
語必忠信 行必正直
Very good video
Thank you for posting it here. I remember when the 'net started. I was in graduate school and used the arpa-net. It was very, very military, having be developed by the defense peeps. No-one else but me and a friend were in to it. Dang, that was long ago!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I'm not a digital person
I've grown tired of adapting to updates and the newest phones. I don't think I've ever intentionally uploaded an "ap" yet there are scores of them if not hundreds on my phone. Why do others have a possessory interest in "my" phone? It seems totalitarian to me. The Levine discussion stops short of using the T word. Call it total surveillance if one doesn't want to admit we're dealing with a totalitarian movement. I've resisted doing business "online" and "getting the ap" as much as possible. I don't believe I've achieved any sort of privacy.
I had one experience a few years back I think even before the truck demonstration on Canada's border that demonstrated the ability of the all powerful to "freeze" everyone's account that implied as practical matter you could cease being able to function in a commercial society.
Years ago, I saw some very early naval computer applications, that were so primitive, I won't bother to describe them. I also visited NORAD once. I tried to read Arkin's book on
DARPA andthe buildout in DC of unidentified glass palaces of government intel contractors under guard in the DC metro, but it was a lot of guess work and inferences because what they did was all classified. You couldn't even tell who owned the building let alone what they were doing there. I got the idea, billions were being spent and nobody had any idea what they were doing. I never finished the book. I'm probably conflating two different books.Levine said that maybe you could avoid state and local authorities using NSA or other digital type surveillance methods to monitor private personal activity. But there are things call fusion centers that are integrated with local jurisdictions just for this very purpose. If the info collected is used without a warrant to prosecute someone, the "fruit of the poisoned tree" is just lied about in court proceedings. They call it "parallel construction." Speaking hypothetically of course, I'd call it perjury and fraud on the court.
No matter what you do unless you totally drop offline, one is under total surveillance. And state and local jurisdictions can request access to it from the feds, if they don't already have a direct pipeline in a fusion center.
edit: okay Arkin's book that I referred to above was Top Secret America, there was another book by someone else on DARPA. It was Annie Jacobsen's book "The Pentagon's Brain" that discussed some of the things that Levine described. I did read Jacobsen's book in its entirety. I've lost virtually my entire library so I have to refresh my memory by checking online!
語必忠信 行必正直
Once again --
Trump will crash the economy.
Moon of Alabama too:
White House Lacks Financial Literacy - 'Tariffs' Show
"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad
that is some heady stuff
makes plenty of sense
except for the sensibility of the policies
once again, being sold a basket of BS
disguised as maga
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Very good analyses
and scary too. Why is our own government walking us into this crap? Ohh wait, it's not our government it's theirs.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
MAGA is cheering all the job losses and
.
“Yay…we’re reducing the dead weight in government and that’s really good even though many Trump supporters have been chucked into the cold.”
Well I hope none of them are getting help with funding for gas and electricity because Kennedy just fired the whole staff in DC that allocate the funds.
Dumb effers cheering the carnage don’t see that Trump is only hurting the working class while getting ready to give his friends another tax cut.
Over 172,000 jobs were lost last month and now another 20 thousand this month and it’s only the 3rd day of it.
Oh yeah and trillions have been wiped out of 401k today. So much winning!
“Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit moon”
Is it too late to knock it back on course?
If my 'job' was to count the chickens before they hatch
.
would be busy as sterile bees. (Thanks Monsanto)
Not sure that what is being broadcast resembles the truth?
Guess we will see the form of this capital crash when it
combusts? It feels like a spectator sport. From the nosebleed seats.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Yep, he's hurting the working class
And so it goes
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
“Zionism is Jewish grievance politics and it imperils us all”
https://jewschool.com/zionism-is-jewish-grievance-politics-and-it-imperi...
Also, a video by Jeremy Scahill:
Donald Trump and Germany Are Using the Same Playbook to Criminalize Pro-Palestine Activism
Trump has his own personal version of Rasputin.
What could possibly go wrong?
Employment leaping?
Hahahahahahahahaha. Sure! *eyeroll* Rasputin indeed, I completely agree.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Oh my!
The Trump administration conducted a thorough investigation
before applying the sanctions.
Oh, dear.
I can just see representatives of ICE going to all the zoos in the country, rounding up the penguins, and deporting them.
They will deport them to El Salvador, of course, or maybe Gitmo, but by Gawd they'll damned well be deported. To somewhere. That'll show 'em.
This back-talk by the penguins will not be allowed to stand!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
The penguins do not like to be compared with chickens and they
pissed off.
Wat, they didn't get the DEI memo?
The woke penguins are in solidarity
with the pelicans. Screw the chickens.
It's all about fowl pecking order. Some birds
are more equal than others ya know.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
The penguin flipping
Trump off was great. I'm still laughing
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Hi humphrey
Regarding penguins, I knew they were inventive, but didn’t realise they were capable of producing “machinery and electrical” stuff, yet.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/penguins-dont-just-look-smart-they-are...
Good afternoon, sima, et. al...
I got an insight on the egg price gouging scam by reading the BIG articles. Monopolies suck, no matter the industry. We have anty-trust lawsl We just do not enforce them. Political donations supply chain cannot be disrupted!
Meanwhile, I am checking headlines to see the stock market sliding down with the stupid-ass tariffs.
If jobs suddenly appear, as Trump states, the employers will be...who, exactly?
Can't wait to see what China does.
I appreciate that Lee Camp describes all the other crappy presidents we have had since, oh, 1963.
Thanks for the OT, Sima.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
This is a great question..
'If jobs suddenly appear, as Trump states, the employers will be...who, exactly?' I have no idea. And what jobs are supposed to suddenly appear? We can't send workers back to industrial plants to make things if we don't have the plants, and we don't. So do those workers have to learn to make the plants? And who is gonna train them, and pay them and... yeesh.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Perhaps the idea behind crashing the dollar
.
Is not so insane? IE: tariffs.
The global dependency on the petro dollar as an
exchange vehicle is better prepared before the
collapse occurs. Instability is a wake up call for
investors to leave the market with whatever booty
can be salvaged. Leaving a sinking ship improves the
chances of survival.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
I used to follow
the sailor's best advice: "Never board the life raft until you have to step up to enter it..."
Now, I'm not so sure. (;-)
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Bail has two meanings here
.
one is scooping out the rising water
the other is to get out while the getting is good
(although otc may have a third one) bail me out!
then there is also the ancient mariners wisdom
get away before she sucks you down
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
True, dat;
and no doubt about it!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Uh...
I do have one!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
looking at the markets from a perspective longer than
this fall helps.
Over the course of the past year, I am still way into the black. The market went way up, now it's way down, end result, slightly up.