Latest news with #BostonTeaParty
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Today in History: June 1, priceless recordings destroyed in Universal Studios fire
Advertisement In 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party, General Thomas Gage, the newly appointed governor of the Massachusetts colony, closed Boston Harbor to all trade, following the orders of the British Parliament. In 1813, the mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Captain James Lawrence, gave the order, 'Don't give up the ship,' during a losing battle with the British frigate HMS Shannon inthe War of 1812. In 1916, the Senate voted 47-22 to confirm Louis Brandeis as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, the first Jewish American to serve on the nation's highest bench. In 1943, a civilian flight from Portugal to England was shot down by German bombers during World War II, killing all 17 people aboard, including actor Leslie Howard. Advertisement In 1957, Don Bowden, a student at the University of California at Berkeley, became the first American to break the four-minute mile during a meet in Stockton, Calif., with a time of 3:58.7. In 1962, former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was executed after being found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions during World War II. In 1980, Cable News Network, the first 24-hour television news channel, made its debut. In 1990, US President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to stop producing and reduce existing stockpiles of chemical weapons held by the two Cold War superpowers. In 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shot and killed nine members of the Nepalese royal family, including his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, before mortally wounding himself. In 2008, a fire at Universal Studios Hollywood destroyed 3 acres of the studio's property, including a vault that held as many as 175,000 irreplaceable master audio recordings from hundreds of musicians including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, and Nirvana. In 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, becoming the largest US industrial company to enter bankruptcy protection. In 2020, police violently broke up a protest by thousands of people in Lafayette Park across from the White House, using chemical agents, clubs, and punches to send protesters fleeing. The protesters had gathered following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis a week earlier. Later that day, President Trump, after declaring himself 'the president of law and order' and threatening to deploy the US military in a speech, walked across the empty park to be photographed holding a Bible in front of St. John's Church, which had been damaged a night earlier. Advertisement
Wall Street Journal
21-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Tariffs Mean Electoral Defeat for the GOP
The Trump administration is looking for an exit strategy from the most destructive parts of its trade war. The uncertainty is heightening the risk of a recession. Millions of business supply chains have been dismantled. The postwar trading system, responsible for 80 years of peace and prosperity, is in tatters. Some of the damage is irreversible. But if history is any guide, the latest protectionist experiment will soon be over. While protectionists portray the 18th and 19th centuries as a happy period when Americans prospered behind tariff protections, nothing is further from the truth. Americans have historically hated high tariffs and never suffered them for long. Almost 300 years ago American colonists revolted against repeated British efforts to impose tariffs on American imports. Colonists defied the 1733 Molasses Tariff with widespread smuggling. Crying 'taxation without representation,' they mounted a crusade against the 1767-68 Townshend Acts that forced Parliament to repeal them. The Tea Act of 1773 sparked the Boston Tea Party and was effectively repealed at Lexington and Concord.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
We Are All Grateful for Trump's Tariff Tantrum
With the election of President Trump, the word 'tariff' hasn't seen this much action since the Boston Tea Party. On May 4 it became more personal, and more confusing, when he announced a '100 percent tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands.' Um, OK. What the hell does that mean? A tariff is a tax imposed by a governing body on imported goods. However, films aren't a physical good like Parmesan, catalytic converters, or Temu hauls. A performance, recorded or otherwise, qualifies as an intangible service. Another way to look at it: Trump can place a tariff on a pair of scissors, but he can't touch the haircut. More from IndieWire Eli Craig on Why Scary Clowns Are Having a Moment: 'Gen Z Has Just Gone from One Mind-Boggling Absurdity to the Next' Jake Schreier in Early Talks to Direct 'X-Men' Movie for Marvel Studios Still, let's play along. As IndieWire's Brian Welk noted, this is a 'strategy' with more questions than answers, like: Would it apply to just films, or also TV shows? What about streaming? Would tariffs apply when films go into production, or upon release? Would it apply to only to those films shot outside of America, or also to those with foreign financing? What about films that shoot both within and outside the U.S.? Who pays: the country, the studio, the producers, the distributor? All of the above? How do you tax a multimillion-dollar product expressed as a digital file? Who enforces any of this? The first test of Trump's idea, however far-fetched, will be at the Cannes film market that starts next week. We'll be watching to see if international buyers become wary of U.S. projects, which would/could have a seismic effect on small-to-mid-budget films. Oddly enough, tariffs play only a minor role in the plan pitched to Trump by the group led by Jon Voight, his 'Special Ambassador to Hollywood.' In a copy of the plan shared by Deadline, tariffs would be reserved for those productions that 'could have been produced in the U.S,' with exemptions for projects made under 'production treaties.' The plan also recommends a federal tax credit of up to 20 percent. Meanwhile, California legislature will vote this summer on Governor Gavin Newsom's proposal to raise the state's tax program to at least $750 million. Some lawmakers are even pushing for no annual cap, as is the case in Georgia and elsewhere. As America's entertainment hub, this single-state strategy could provide a massive correction and a template for other states to follow. However inadvertently, Trump did all of us a huge favor in elevating this conflict. To get California to pull off this major reallocation, we need to be loud and relentless. If you're ready to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, there are plenty of organizations working on lobbying California representatives to support this budget raise. Organized by the Entertainment Union Coalition — made up of the WGAW, DGA, SAG-AFTRA, Teamster Local 399, AFM, California IATSE Council, American Federation of Musicians, and LIUNA Local 724 — the 'Keep California Rolling' initiative is picking up steam and creating templates for others to become engaged with suggestions for online posts and a social strategy detailed below. Show your support on Instagram, Facebook, and other social platforms using #KeepCaliforniaRolling to raise awareness. Your voice matters. In 15-20 seconds, explain why keeping production in California matters. Or, post a photo of you and your crew. Let your voice be heard. Tag the governor, guilds, and your local legislators. @CAgovernor, @IATSE, @SAGAFTRA, @DirectorsGuild, @teamsterslocal399, @WritersGuildWest, @AFMLocal47, @LiUNA_local724, @CaliforniaLabor Find your local representatives. Other groups like 'Stay in LA,' formed by writers Julie Plec and Sarah Adina Smith, have organized petitions and are gathering funds for lobbying efforts in Sacramento this summer. They're also highlighting the state's recent wildfires as reason that bringing production back to Los Angeles requires emergency measures. They clearly lay out the production decline and the fixes necessary (like uncapping credits and rebates) to ensuring a thriving economy in Hollywood. It may seem like we have little control over the levers of power, but if you're a worker in entertainment or hoping one day to be, the future of our profession depends on you. Rather than panic over Trump's latest shenanigans, let's get to work. Best of IndieWire The 19 Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in May, from 'Fair Play' to 'Emily the Criminal' Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies: 86 Films the Director Wants You to See Christopher Nolan's Favorite Movies: 44 Films the Director Wants You to See
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Breakfast Is Breaking
In the morning weekday rush, any breakfast will suffice. A bowl of cereal, buttered toast, yogurt with granola—maybe avocado toast, if you're feeling fancy. But when there's time for something heartier, nothing satisfies like the classic American breakfast plate, soothing for both stomach and soul. No matter where you get the meal—at home, a diner, a local brunch spot—it's pleasingly consistent in form and price: eggs, toast, potatoes, and some kind of salty, reddish meat, with orange juice and coffee on the side. Pancakes, if you're really hungry. If you're craving a filling, greasy, and relatively cheap meal, look no further than an all-American breakfast. The classic breakfast hasn't changed in roughly a century. A Los Angeles breakfast menu from the 1930s closely resembles that of my neighborhood greasy spoon in New York; diners from Pittsburgh to Portland offer up pretty much the same plate. The meal's long-lived uniformity—so rare as food habits have moved from meatloaf and Jell-O cake to banh mi and panettone—was made possible by abundance: Each of its ingredients has long been accessible and affordable in the United States. But lately, breakfast diehards like me have noticed a troubling change. At my neighborhood diner, a breakfast plate that cost $11.50 in 2020 now costs $14—and it isn't just because of inflation. Although all kinds of food have gotten more expensive in recent years, traditional breakfast has had a particularly rough go of it. The cost of eggs has soared; supply shortages have driven coffee and orange-juice prices to historic highs. And that's not even taking President Donald Trump's tariffs into account. 'Milk, sausage, certainly not coffee—these things are not going to get cheaper,' Jason Miller, a supply-chain-management professor at Michigan State University who researches the impact of tariffs, told me. The stream of staples that have made American breakfast so cheap for so long is now starting to sputter. Breakfast can symbolize an entire nation: the full English, the French omelet, Belgian waffles. In many ways, America's plate chronicles the nation's history. Reverence for bacon and eggs was partly inherited from the English; a vigorous public-relations campaign later cemented its popularity. In the 18th century, the Boston Tea Party helped tip the nation permanently toward coffee, and Scotch-Irish settlers kick-started American potato growing in New Hampshire. With the Industrial Revolution, access to these and other breakfast foods exploded: Bacon was packed onto trains carrying mass-produced eggs, milk, and potatoes across the country. In 1945, the invention of frozen concentrated orange juice gave all Americans a taste of Florida. But if breakfast was once a story of American innovation and plenty, it is now something different. No food captures the changes better than eggs. Since 2023, bird flu has wiped out henhouses, leading to egg shortages that have intermittently made buying a carton eye-wateringly expensive. Profiteering in the egg industry may also be keeping prices high: 'When there are these horrible bird-flu outbreaks, the producers are actually making a lot more profit,' Miller said. After peaking at more than $8 for a dozen in February, the wholesale cost of eggs has come down, but a carton still costs double what it did at the start of 2020. Ordering eggs at a restaurant will put even more of a dent in your wallet. Earlier this year, the breakfast chain Waffle House imposed a temporary 50-cent 'egg surcharge,' and Denny's followed suit with a surcharge that varies by region. (Denny's and Waffle House did not respond to a request for comment.) At restaurants, the price of eggs probably won't return to pre-bird-flu levels anytime soon, even when outbreaks subside. 'In general, stuff tends to not get cheaper,' Miller said. And any reprieve from egg shortages is likely to be short-lived: Scientists predict that bird-flu outbreaks will return year after year, unless the virus is brought under control. Until that changes, the tradition of centering eggs in the morning meal will be costly to uphold. Another factor endangering the classic breakfast is climate change. The global coffee supply has fallen precipitously because of extreme weather in Brazil and Vietnam, which together produce more than half the world's beans. Since January 2020, the shortages have driven up the retail price of ground coffee by 75 percent. So far, coffee importers have shouldered most of the rising costs to shield consumers, but 'eventually something has to give,' Miller said. Orange juice is likewise drying up. As I wrote in February, all-American orange juice barely exists anymore because Florida's citrus production has plummeted 92 percent in the past two decades. The spread of an incurable disease and a spate of grove-destroying hurricanes have forced juice companies to rely heavily on oranges imported from Brazil and Mexico. Climate change has also messed with the supply of non-breakfast food, such as chocolate, but it has particularly hammered our morning routines. Even add-ons to the classic breakfast, such as bananas and blueberries, have been in short supply because of extreme weather. And now the syrup on the pancake: Trump's trade war is poised to make matters worse. The current 10 percent tariff on most imported goods is just a preview of what could come this summer, if the president's wider reciprocal tariffs take effect. You can't exactly grow coffee in Iowa; most of America's supply is imported from Latin America, and the rest from Vietnam, which could face a 46 percent tariff. Eggs and orange juice are easy to think of as all-American products, but imports have shored up our supply. The Trump administration has turned to Turkey and South Korea to help keep eggs in stock at your grocery store, but bringing over those cartons might soon be subject to steep tariffs. Even potatoes aren't immune. Though spuds are the most widely produced vegetable in the U.S., Americans love them so much that the country has become a net importer of them: Canada alone provided $375 million worth of potatoes in 2024. All of those potatoes need to be cooked somehow—often, in canola oil also produced in Canada. Most Canadian foods are exempt from tariffs for now, but considering Trump's ongoing feud with our northern neighbor, taxes seem like only a matter of time. Even if you don't eat the classic American breakfast, tariffs are likely coming for your morning meal: Bananas, avocados, berries, maple syrup, and lox, among other foods, are at risk of price increases from tariffs. Some elements of the breakfast plate are safe—for now. America is a grain-producing powerhouse, so foods such as toast, pancakes, and waffles aren't expected to become wildly pricey. Bacon and sausage will probably be fine too; if China stops importing U.S. pork as a result of the trade war, there will be an even bigger supply at home, Miller said. A tariff-ridden future could shift more homegrown foods onto the breakfast plate: sausage and pancakes, ham and toast, with a glass of milk to wash it down. Of course, people eat plenty of other foods for breakfast, and these alternatives may just become more popular: Greek yogurt, oatmeal, cereal. Still, a crucial part of breakfast that can't be overlooked is the cookware used to make it. The majority of America's toasters, microwaves, coffee makers, juicers, and pans come from China, which currently faces a 145 percent tariff. Yes, seemingly everything has become more expensive in recent years, and tariffs risk raising the cost of many goods. But it hurts most when higher prices affect the things we count on to be inexpensive. The defining characteristic of the American breakfast is not bacon and eggs, or toast or coffee, but its affordability. Diners proliferated near factories because working-class people knew they could fill up on a classic plate after an overnight shift without fretting about the cost. Now stepping out for a diner breakfast can require a level of budgeting once reserved for fancy brunch. Whether or not a trade war escalates, the notion of the classic American breakfast is in peril—as is the vision of the nation it once symbolized. The forces affecting orange juice, coffee, and eggs are far harder to control than economic hostility. For the time being, eggs, bacon, and all of the other foods that make up the American breakfast are still available. But if the plate is no longer cheap, it just won't be the same. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
05-05-2025
- Business
- Atlantic
Breakfast Is Breaking
In the morning weekday rush, any breakfast will suffice. A bowl of cereal, buttered toast, yogurt with granola—maybe avocado toast, if you're feeling fancy. But when there's time for something heartier, nothing satisfies like the classic American breakfast plate, soothing for both stomach and soul. No matter where you get the meal—at home, a diner, a local brunch spot—it's pleasingly consistent in form and price: eggs, toast, potatoes, and some kind of salty, reddish meat, with orange juice and coffee on the side. Pancakes, if you're really hungry. If you're craving a filling, greasy, and relatively cheap meal, look no further than an all-American breakfast. The classic breakfast hasn't changed in roughly a century. A Los Angeles breakfast menu from the 1930s closely resembles that of my neighborhood greasy spoon in New York; diners from Pittsburgh to Portland offer up pretty much the same plate. The meal's long-lived uniformity—so rare as food habits have moved from meatloaf and jello cake to banh mi and panettone —was made possible by abundance: Each of its ingredients has long been accessible and affordable in the United States. But lately, breakfast diehards like me have noticed a troubling change. At my neighborhood diner, a breakfast plate that cost $11.50 in 2020 now costs $14 —and it isn't just because of inflation. Although all kinds of food have gotten more expensive in recent years, traditional breakfast has had a particularly rough go of it. The cost of eggs has soared; supply shortages have driven coffee and orange-juice prices to historic highs. And that's not even taking President Donald Trump's tariffs into account. 'Milk, sausage, certainly not coffee—these things are not going to get cheaper,' Jason Miller, a supply-chain-management professor at Michigan State University who researches the impact of tariffs, told me. The stream of staples that have made American breakfast so cheap for so long is now starting to sputter. Breakfast can symbolize an entire nation: the full English, the French omelet, Belgian waffles. In many ways, America's plate chronicles the nation's history. Reverence for bacon and eggs was partly inherited from the English; a vigorous public-relations campaign later cemented its popularity. In the 18th century, the Boston Tea Party helped tip the nation permanently toward coffee, and Scotch-Irish settlers kick-started American potato growing in New Hampshire. With the industrial revolution, access to these and other breakfast foods exploded: Bacon was packed onto trains carrying mass-produced eggs, milk, and potatoes across the country. In 1945, the invention of frozen concentrated orange juice gave all Americans a taste of Florida. But if breakfast was once a story of American innovation and plenty, it is now something different. No food captures the changes better than eggs. Since 2023, bird flu has wiped out henhouses, leading to egg shortages that have intermittently made buying a carton eye-wateringly expensive. Profiteering in the egg industry may also be keeping prices high: 'When there are these horrible bird-flu outbreaks, the producers are actually making a lot more profit,' Miller said. After peaking at more than $8 for a dozen in February, the wholesale cost of eggs has come down, but a carton still costs double what it did at the start of 2020. Ordering eggs at a restaurant will put even more of a dent in your wallet. Earlier this year, the breakfast chain Waffle House imposed a temporary 50-cent 'egg surcharge,' and Denny's followed suit with a surcharge that varies by regio n. (Denny's and Waffle House did not respond to a request for comment.) At restaurants, the price of eggs probably won't return to pre-bird-flu levels anytime soon, even when outbreaks subside. 'In general, stuff tends to not get cheaper,' Miller said. And any reprieve from egg shortages is likely to be short-lived: Scientists predict that bird-flu outbreaks will return year after year, unless the virus is brought under control. Until that changes, the tradition of centering eggs in the morning meal will be costly to uphold. Another factor endangering the classic breakfast is climate change. The global coffee supply has fallen precipitously because of extreme weather in Brazil and Vietnam, which together produce more than half the world's beans. Since January 2020, the shortages have driven up the retail price of ground coffee by 75 percent. So far, coffee importers have shouldered most of the rising costs to shield consumers, but 'eventually something has to give,' Miller said. Orange juice is likewise drying up. As I wrote in February, all-American orange juice barely exists anymore because Florida's citrus production has plummeted 92 percent in the past two decades. The spread of an incurable disease and a spate of grove-destroying hurricanes have forced juice companies to rely heavily on oranges imported from Brazil and Mexico. Climate change has also messed with the supply of non-breakfast food, such as chocolate, but it has particularly hammered our morning routines. Even add-ons to the classic breakfast, such as bananas and blueberries, have been in short supply because of extreme weather. And now the syrup on the pancake: Trump's trade war is poised to make matters worse. The current 10 percent tariff on most imported goods is just a preview of what could come this summer, if the president's wider reciprocal tariffs take effect. You can't exactly grow coffee in Iowa; most of America's supply is imported from Latin America, and the rest from Vietnam, which could face a 46 percent tariff. Eggs and orange juice are easy to think of as all-American products, but imports have shored up our supply. The Trump administration has turned to Turkey and South Korea to help keep eggs in stock at your grocery store, but bringing over those cartons might soon be subject to steep tariffs. Even potatoes aren't immune. Though spuds are the most widely produced vegetable in the U.S., Americans love them so much that the country has become a net importer of them: Canada alone provided $375 million worth of potatoes in 2024. All of those potatoes need to be cooked somehow—often, in canola oil also produced in Canada. Most Canadian foods are exempt from tariffs for now, but considering Trump's ongoing feud with our northern neighbor, taxes seem like only a matter of time. Even if you don't eat the classic American breakfast, tariffs are likely coming for your morning meal: Bananas, avocados, berries, maple syrup, and lox, among other foods, are at risk of price increases from tariffs. Some elements of the breakfast plate are safe—for now. America is a grain-producing powerhouse, so foods such as toast, pancakes, and waffles aren't expected to become wildly pricey. Bacon and sausage will probably be fine too; if China stops importing U.S. pork as a result of the trade war, there will be an even bigger supply at home, Miller said. A tariff-ridden future could shift more homegrown foods onto the breakfast plate: sausage and pancakes, ham and toast, with a glass of milk to wash it down. Of course, people eat plenty of other foods for breakfast, and these alternatives may just become more popular: Greek yogurt, oatmeal, cereal. Still, a crucial part of breakfast that can't be overlooked is the cookware used to make it. The majority of America's toasters, microwaves, coffee makers, juicers, and pans come from China, which currently faces a 145 percent tariff. Yes, seemingly everything has become more expensive in recent years, and tariffs risk raising the cost of many goods. But it hurts most when higher prices affect the things we count on to be inexpensive. The defining characteristic of the American breakfast is not bacon and eggs, or toast or coffee, but its affordability. Diners proliferated near factories because working-class people knew they could fill up on a classic plate after an overnight shift without fretting about the cost. Now stepping out for a diner breakfast can require a level of budgeting once reserved for fancy brunch. Whether or not a trade war escalates, the notion of the classic American breakfast is in peril—as is the vision of the nation it once symbolized. The forces affecting orange juice, coffee, and eggs are far harder to control than economic hostility. For the time being, eggs, bacon, and all of the other foods that make up the American breakfast are still available. But if the plate is no longer cheap, it just won't be the same.
