Hello everyone! It’s been a little while and I’ve been curious how things are going. A little update on me I’ve felt the direct effects of trumps bull shit such as fucking with foodstamps and other things. Its been a wild ride. How are all of you? Ready for the holidays? How was Thanksgiving? If you celebrate.
<grinch mode=“on”>
I can only complain.
I’m ready for christmas to be over with already.
Thanksgiving is a non-issue here (Europe).
Nope.
</grinch>
Sorry to hear the SNAP cuts have burdened you. During the same period my stepson was granted disability benefits, including a couple years of back benefits, much to my astonishment. But I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Trump’s fuckeries catch up to us. We started taking Social Security in January because we figured we’d lose those benefits or they would be cut or become unreliable before long – even though we both could have waited a couple more years. Of course we have experienced the enormous increase in food prices – I joke with the cashier at the local grocer that they need to start offering mortgages to pay for groceries. It’s a good thing we’ve mostly quit eating red meat anyway because we can’t really afford it anymore.
We will all muddle through together – what else can you do.
The whole world is feeling the effects of his bullshit.
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Try getting hold of the British wartime cookbooks…they are online. Saved me from malnutrition a few times….
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Well this is an entirely new world I didn’t know existed. Thanks for the suggestion. I may buy a couple of them for my stepson – he is the big cook in the family, and would enjoy the challenge of working around shortages, etc. He studies the chemistry of food for fun as it is.
I did not mean to imply we’re unable to buy enough food – things are not that dire for us (yet anyway) – but prices are high enough that we are more careful and not splurging like we used to, and I foresee various shortages in coming years due to war, climate, supply chain disruption, etc. So all forms of resilience are apt to become more important.
Exactly, things that once were weekly are now monthly treats. And yes as the oligarchs tighten their grip on supply sides, water and agricuture it is not going to get better…until……
Yeah, even outside the US a lot of people are feeling the ripple effects economically and politically. Feels like every few months there’s a new round of chaos everyone has to adapt to.
Describing it as chaos is too mild, IMHO. From this side of the pond (Europe) it looks more like self destruction.
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And from the blunt Aussie POV its a Royal Fuck Up with knobs on.
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All I say is, “Who ain’t felt t-Rump’s horse hoowhee?”
I am old me self, 75 in about 7 weeks. I also moved me mom in so I can care for her in later years.
Medical costs continue to skyrocket since that POS got into office this 2nd time. I am definitively FEELING that pinch on me wallet. Without me mom’s retirement, I would never be able to do what I do now. I would probably had to migrate to Mexico.
In my georegion, grocery prices are still so high that 3 days of food (only two meals/day) for me mom and I costs a whopping $150. ONLY 3 days. I think t-Rump is implementing that plan he spoke of once in an interview show back in the 1980s. He said if he were POTUS, he would ensure that the “poor” (people who ain’t billionaires) could not afford to live in the USA and would be forced to migrate to Mexico, Central America, or South America.
To be honest, I think he is earnestly doing his bullshit to carry out that plan. He wants the USA for ONLY the filthy rich.
What a douche bag…
Franklin
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That is the agenda of nearly all the filthy rich. Always has been.
Once in awhile there’s an outlier. I remember a few years ago there was this venture capitalist who was warning his fellow venture capitalists that no one would be around to buy their shit if they keep pricing themselves out of the market and defunding social safety nets, etc.
No one listened to him. No one ever does.
I think that beyond a certain level of wealth that might be vaguely defined as “independently wealthy” or “never have to worry about money again at least as far as living a fairly stable Western comfortable lifestyle”, people are drained of empathy. Specifically any ability to connect with or care about (or notice) the pain of your “lessers”. It is all their fault somehow. After all you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps (or so you fancy). It wasn’t luck, or inheritance, it was hard work. (“Hard” being a relative term).
I have come to the conclusion that no one should be allowed a net worth larger than some figure to be determined. Even if you set that figure high – say, a billion dollars – and kept all that wealth in the common pot, the world would be a much better place. I think a much lower figure, easily a tenth of that, probably less, would be fine. No one who has 50 million dollars “needs” another million.
With today’s prices, being technically a millionaire is no great shakes. You can have 2 million dollars saved up and if you’re supporting a family of 2 or 3 could still be wiped out here in the US by a well-placed medical crisis. But if you have 10 million in net worth and $1 million a year in passive income, I think you’re good to go and can start to share with the other kids.
We had a marginal tax rate in the high 90s post WW2 and that produced the 1950s, the “good old days” that every Republican wants to return to.
A good book that touches on this in a very relevant way is Enemies of You: The Enshittification of America by Richard Lowe.
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Read that one. Funny, but damned serious.
Franklin
What did you find funny about it? It didn’t strike me as funny in any way.
It does have a funny title 
. A very serious subject, but with a funny title. I’m trying very hard to hold on to my humor, but it isn’t easy. They’re literally trying to silence comedians. I’m going to try and get hold of a copy of that book.
Funny when comparing to how theists think.
Sorry
Franklin