The Weekly Watch

Growing Frustration

...and food for thought

Open Thread Image.jpg

It seems there is a growing sense of frustration in the US and western world in general. People know the system is broken, and like me have no idea how to correct our course. Many are hurting, homeless, and hungry. This week there's been a viral song that has captured this spirit of frustration. Lots of people have discussed it but I'll let the song speak for itself...

Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North Of Richmond (3 min)

[Verse 1]
I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away

[Pre-Chorus]
It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is

[Chorus]
Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond

[Verse 2]
I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare

[Verse 3]
Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground
'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down

[Pre-Chorus]
Lord, it's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is

[Chorus]
Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond

[Outro]
I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay

He explains his situation...(4.5 min)

Sure seems like a real person...
It's a pleasure to meet you (9.5 min)

His song has over 20 million view. It has struck a chord cause things ain't right.

And they don't think you know, but I know that you do

Some are calling the song the people's new anthem. It certainly speaks of our time and situation. A voice of American angst.

People are frustrated...

A video recently went viral that featured a distraught Alabama woman in her car lamenting the virtual impossibility her children, recent college graduates, face in a job market and economy that seems designed to deny them the opportunity to succeed. This wasn’t always the way for middle class Americans, she says, and points the finger at the ever-increasing problem of income inequality.

Trump's indictment seems in stark contrast to the Biden Crime Family activities. Now I'm no Trump fan, but I'm more inclined to oppose weaponizing the justice system and committing lawfare.

Donald Trump has now been indicted a fourth time, on this occasion in Georgia over alleged collusion to undermine the state’s election in 2020 by asking the Secretary of State to “find” additional votes to win the Peach State’s electoral votes. The case is highly suspect, however, and rests upon a significant stretch to determine a clear case of lawbreaking. But the establishment is determined to stop Trump, and this is another arrow in their quiver to potentially derail Trump’s 2024 Presidential bid.

How the Biden family preyed on Ukraine corruption (30 min)
The Grayzone's Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal examine new allegations of Biden family corruption in post-coup Ukraine, where Hunter Biden cashed in on a corrupt gas firm seeking protection from prosecution, and the president now stands accused of direct involvement. Aaron discusses his interview with a former Ukrainian government employee who blew the whistle on the Maidan government's corruption and warmaking.

This frustrations rings across many dimensions...especially foreign policy. One of the best things I heard this week was Jeffry Sachs conversation on The Duran...(1st 30 min)

John Bolton escalation. Removing Imran Khan w/ Jeffrey Sachs
His frustration with US coup non-diplomacy is obvious. So is mine.

Talk about frustration...how about your home burning down with NO government action...or perhaps because of someones action? (10 min)

While nothing comes close to the catastrophic devastation of Lahaina, there are also fires that blazed last Tuesday in places like Kula and Olinda, turning homes into ash, and scorching across farms and thru trees. In Kula, firefighters are still fighting persistent fires. Families in Upcountry and West Maui still cannot return home due to lack of water and power. Meanwhile, looters are getting more bold, exploiting this crisis burgling homes in broad daylight. To the government officials responsible, our neighbors and friends need you NOW. There is no excuse or reason to delay.

It is the people themselves stepping up with no help from any level of government.
Community Resilience in the Face of Disaster | Tulsi Gabbard in Maui (7.5 min)
No matter how much they lost in this tragic disaster, the people of Maui have been there for each other from day 1. This is what it means to Live Aloha.

This is an excellent discussion about the Maui situation with a reporter on the ground and Bret Weinstein
The Lahaina Fire – Jeremy Lee Quinn on DarkHorse (45 min)
(00:00) Welcome and missing 20mins
(02:00) Winds and flare ups
(15:15) Conspiracy, paranoia or incompetence
(26:40) Number of deaths
(34:39) Police barricades caused deaths?
(39:30) Does Jeremy believe it was premeditated?
(42:15) Wrap up

Jimmy correctly questions the motives and reaction of the chief of police on Maui. (14 min)
Maui Police Chief Ordered Cops To Block Cars From Fleeing Fire Allege Eyewitness.
(see the previous interview for a better explanation, but you gotta admit this guy acts like he's has done something wrong.)
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier has been less than forthcoming about addressing concerns over the government response to the recent devastating wildfires. In one video Pelletier refuses to make eye contact with or even acknowledge a woman outside police headquarters who politely requested his attention to ask a few questions.

Chris Hedges explains to George Maui is a symptom of the rot of US empire. (25 min)

Why has Hawaii been left to burn? The US is being disembowelled by the war machine, says renowned analyst Chris Hedges


Yes, frustration resonates across the land.

The BRICS+ meeting his week may provide hope for most of the world as the remnants of western empires decay and fade.

Michael Hudson - the titan who challenged financial capitalism

Excellent hour conversation starting with Hudson's back story.

Food for Thought

I'm trained as an agronomist (soil and crop scientist), but spent my career as a homesteading teacher. I continue to have an interest in agriculture, and I think community based food production is the best path forward. However TPTB plan to politicize food production. Control the food, control the people.
The Fall of Farming In Europe (9.3 min)

Iconic eco-activist Vandana Shiva and author of A Small Farm Future Chris Smaje join Florence Read to discuss the fightback against crony corporatism and the agricultural industrial complex. (13 min)

How Billionaires are Driving Farmers out of Business (7 min)

Joel Salatin: All of a Sudden, Even Billionaires Want to Farm (1.5 hours)

Joel Salatin joins Doug Casey for an important and wide-ranging conversation. Excellent discussion for those with an interest in how we COULD shape the future of food production. Now, I'm not as capitalist nor as christian, but I can't help but admire Joel and his terrific results on his farm(s). I usually have to break these into smaller bites but I was intrigued for the full 90 min.
My favorite part was how Joel and polyface farm are training a new generation of community farmers somewhere about to middle. Sorry I don't have time stamps for this one.
They also discuss ways around the regulatory systems.
https://roguefoodconference.com/
Join Joel Salatin, John Moody and other speakers as Rogue Food goes west!
Our seventh RFC and our first on the West side of the United States.
Join us at the Clark County Square Dance Center just outside of Battleground, Washington (10713 NE 117 Ave., Vancouver, WA 98662) from 8.30-5.00 on Saturday, November 4th.
Learn how to creatively circumvent and not comply with bureaucratic nonsense while rebuilding local economy and community. Rogue covers topics from PMAs to food churches and buying clubs, from emotional support chickens to legal judo, and more.

There was an interesting debate between Allen Savory arguing that animals are necessary for ecological restoration (especially in dry lands) and George Monbiot who wants to eliminate animal production.
Allan Savory v George Monbiot debate | Is livestock grazing essential to mitigating climate change? (90 min)
In the holistic planned grazing process, livestock are used as a tool to reverse the biodiversity loss that leads to desertification — a major contributor to climate change. Yet critics argue that livestock grazing, in almost all circumstances, is a net contributor to climate warming.
On 11 July 2023, founder and proponent of Holistic Management Allan Savory met prominent critic George Monbiot at Oxford University Museum of Natural History for a debate chaired by Dame Professor E.J. Milner-Gulland.
About Allan Savory:
Allan Savory began his career in the 1950s as a research biologist in central Africa where the loss of biodiversity in game reserves and national parks alarmed him. Reversing it became his life's focus and led to a significant breakthrough that became known in 1984 as Holistic Management. He is the author of Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment, Third Edition (Island Press, 2016), and numerous scholarly papers and articles. He has been honoured by The Weston A. Price Foundation (Integrity in Science), the Buckminister Fuller Institute (for his work's "significant potential to solve some of humanity's most pressing problems") and the Banksia Foundation Australia (for "the person doing the most for the environment on a global scale"). He is President of the Savory Institute.
About George Monbiot:
George Monbiot is an author, Guardian columnist, and environmental activist whose current research focus is on the global food system. His best-selling books include Feral: Rewilding the land, sea, and human life, Heat: How to stop the planet burning, and Out of the Wreckage: a new politics for an age of crisis. George was awarded the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2022. In the same year, he became an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. George's latest book, Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet (shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation) draws on astonishing advances in soil and ecology to explore pioneering ways to grow more food with less farming.
Here's a 12 min summary.
Seth J. Itzkan on the Savory & Monbiot discussion at Oxford University. July 11, 2023

Want to hear from some successful regenerative farmers? The Groundswell conference in the UK had a nice variety this year.
And here's a link to all their conferences over several years.
This years Keynote speaker was Richard Perkins who also is training lots of future farmers. He explains his model in several sessions at the link above.

One of my heroes, Greg Judy was there last year. He's been struggling with drought this year, but finally got some rain.

His grazing management (and Allen Savory's, Richard Perkin's, Joel Salatin's and many others) certainly works in his environment and he is a masterful grazing artist.

So we began by looking at people's frustration with a system which is obviously broken, and as Leonard Cohen wrote, Everybody Knows...

Oliver Anthony's hit "Rich Men North of Richmond" has gained over 2M views a day over the last week or so. His very real frustration resonates. He lives in a 27 ft tarp covered camper and has some physical issues. He is not alone in being a victim of a broken system hell bent on promoting war and ignoring it's people. Despite a majority of citizens wanting to stop investing in Ukraine, the majority of so called (corporate owned) representatives are bound to not only promote the Ukrainian proxy war with Russia, but start another conflict thousands of miles away with China. (US Continues Down Path Toward War with China Over Taiwan - 30 min). Meanwhile there's no response to one of the worst natural disasters in US history. Folks were on our own, and better plan accordingly. That's why I wanted to include the hope of community farms, and the example of the way the people of Maui are acting on their own...despite the government roadblocks (instead of aid).

It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is

In spite of the system failure, I hope all is well in your world. We had the most lovely week with mild temperatures and beautiful blue skies...our first hint of fall. We went to our first dance since the plandemic last night here on the mountain. It was great to see old friends who we've missed for years. Not the greatest band nor were the dances which were called, but the friendship was outstanding. Treasure your community of friends and culture those relationships. We're going to need one another as was muddle through the coming times.

Thank you all for sharing your insights here on C99, and I look forward to your comments below.

Share
up
16 users have voted.

Comments

We are packing, ready to head home shortly. I should have time this evening to look at the videos.
A dolphin and pelican came by, giving us a great send off.
I really appreciate the sentiment expressed in the anthem. Some get the impression he is picking on obese people, but from what I see about getting $124 per month in food stamps, people can't buy quality food, resort to junk, finding some satisfaction out of life eating candy. It doesn't have to be this way, and feeding a homeless person should never be a crime.
Gotta finish packing, so have a wonderful day and I am glad you had a dance to attend!

up
7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

If people were educated about healthy eating, instead of being lied to and conned by ads for unhealthy crap as reviewed in last week's ww, it would be a start. It isn't fat shaming to state facts. We in the US are the most obese nation on earth. There's a reason. We're addicted to processed and fast foods...on purpose for the profit of the multinational food syndicate. Can't solve problems without admitting we have them.

To my mind the most important message in today's column is the need to work together... often needing to work around the government. Here's another inspiring example from Maui.

Archie Kalepa’s family had been in Lahaina for 9 generations. He told us what’s needed on the ground to prevent big land grabbers from displacing the people of Lahaina. He is leading the relief efforts and tough conversations needed to rebuild the community. When he finally broke down, it wasn’t over what’s already been lost, it was about what he’s afraid will happen next…

Safe and happy travels back into the oven, my friends.

up
12 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout Got back home and into the oven. Like this until at least 9/3. Will look at forecasts every few days. It will likely go longer.
We will have a simple, easy meal, no exertion, no stress.
I am glad Tulsi went back into the heart of the matter, gave people some hope somebody gives a shit.
Dore's video was spot on. More to view as the night wears on.
George Strait gets ready for the end of the world with a box of Merle. (Haggard, for those unfamiliar.) We got several.

up
3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

.

Be a shame if this went viral. Good thing I was only chewing gum instead of drinking coffee!

up
8 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

I've been seeing stuff on Obummer' being gay cross the feed, but must admit have avoided the clipbait.

More important is his record promoting war, bailing out banks not people, starting the drone wars, doing away with Habeas corpus, and much more. You know go for the wokeism BS.

Heard this talk on wokeness that was quite good...

How Do We Escape The WOKE Matrix? Michael Shellenberger Gives Lecture At University of Austin
40 min lecture followed by Q&A

Hope you and Sam are doing well and will not suffer Hilary's flooding. Looks like a wild unusual storm.

up
8 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

Finally separated and conjoined those two aspects of your Sunday offering.

Sunday is the day we change duties here, so my week to cook starts today. We generally cook and eat healthy and consciously so, though we do argue some about what that entails. We also try to use what little our place produces, such as an excess of tomatoes at the moment. I hope to make my pizza sauce (L. Bastianich version with minor mods) using fresh tomatoes and also add tomato slices to the pie tomorrow, we'll see if that works. (We don't can tomatoes or sauce)

Hormel has shipped 3 truckloads of SPAM to Lahaina with two more on the way as a really great contribution to the relief effort, FWIW. Really good thinking on their part. I discovered that one can arguably make it a bit healthier by flushing the salt out. The idea is to pre-slice it and put it in boiling water and then boil it for 15 minutes or so. Some of the salt (& nitrates?) leach into the water and it begins to float (salt water is denser than regular). Rinse, pat dry and use like you otherwise do.

Temps still in the high eighties here, so I'll be cooking outside. They were predicting we'd get rain from Hilary, but no longer, expected path has shifted further eastward, so a week of cooking on the grill or in the instant pot or both.

Dunno what to say about "The Song". It doesn't mention or allude to food deserts or pernicious marketing, just a category of people milking welfare which echoes the old rhetoric about "welfare queens". When you hear it, you hear what you hear, and "milking" says what it says. Punching down, or even laterally, won't help anything, it's what keeps everybody down. But it's out there and it's viral, so that's that.

Be well and have a good one

up
8 users have voted.

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 --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

I've got an induction plate, instant-pot, and large toaster oven out on the porch. Makes sense for us.

Punching in any direct is a sign of frustration to my mind. When frustrated people do irrational things.

The primary idea I had in mind is that we will/must help one another cause that's all we got.

Sorry you won't reap any rain from the storm, and hope none of our friends feel the impact of flooding, winds, and other weather problems.

Thanks for the visit. Have a good one!

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@enhydra lutris Verse 3 seems to be the most important context.
Our taxes go toward the food stamp program that actually harms people with restrictions.
Are my taxes killing poor people and profiting corporations? Any reason why government can regulate how much you get in food stamps, what you can buy with food stamps, but cannot regulate General Mills?
Why is that?
My interpretation, fwiw.

up
4 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

To me the message is that the rich men north of Richmond (DC) are f---ing us over.

YMMV.

up
4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

I'll counter Jimmy's criticism by asking do you think we should fund people's ill health? Not a criticism of food stamps but they can't buy beer and liqueur, but will buy toxic food...cokes,etc? I think it is worth thinking about.

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

California once decided to distribute food boxes instead of food stamps, allegedly at least in part to reduce abuse. They would typically contain a huge bag of powdered milk, a huge block of butter, a huge block of some pasteurized flavorless yellow "cheese", and several bottles of corn syrup. Not remotely the backbone of a "healthier diet"TM Some other places much later on tried to reclassify soda/pop and such as non-food depriving them of some one or more breaks like sales tax exemption and all hell broke loose. Dunno if any of those provisions still stand.

Food stamps have two purposes. One is to appear to be at least minimally charitable with respect to "worthy poor" and especially mothers with small children. The other is to indirectly subsidize the food industry. That's why the boxes described above seemed to be centered around "food" items that had been subsidized already by purchasing and storing excess production under some other program.

If one were to step in and try to prohibit any non-alcoholic "food" type items there is a good chance you would wind up with a floor fight that would shut down the entire program. Soda? All the corn and sugar producers, beverage producers, independent bottlers and their allies, probably select unions and their allies and all the stop-and-rob and gas station affiliated quickie stores for whom such beverages are quite a large percentage of their sales. And that's just sodapop. Try any broader things and it would be extra crazy (stuff like heavily salted, or too sugary, transfats, etc.)

In the end, you wind up with food subsidy, accepting that some will make bad choices and that in many places and special cases there will be no good choices available, or don't subsidize food. It's like giving money to panhandlers. Some will buy booze, their problem, not mine and maybe they really need a hit of Boones Farm to get thru the day, who knows. Some will buy wonderbread or doughnuts or something else that is empty calories because they have no means to cook a can of Campbell's Soup which is too damn salty anyway. Whatever, at least I give them a choice and a chance to be a bit less hungry for a little while.

be well and have a good one

up
6 users have voted.

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 --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

...pushing the addictive foods is the MO that needs to change. See last weeks WW.

My personal thought is we are too dependent on carbohydrates, sugar based, and addictive processed foods dietary choices. If we had some reasonable education it would go a long way. When the new grain based, no sat. fats recs, people got fat and unhealthy. Just like with the plandemic, what they recommend ain't the thing most of the time. Big food and big pharma are working in conjunction.

Thanks for your valid points.

up
6 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

up
8 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@humphrey

don't know if this is the same news, but hey, the 1st plandemic worked pretty well. Can't let an engineered crisis go to waste.

Thanks for the heads up!

up
6 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

https://robertyoho.substack.com/p/247-face-the-facts?utm_source=substack...

Believe it or not, but if you don’t explain how so many of the things here are happening and did happen.

We are seeing another round of fear porn and a massive psychological attack to get people to take more jabs and to see how many people will obey again. Not one of the things they did to stop the spread worked. But lots of people lost their businesses, became poorer and lots of others got even richer.

up
7 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

of control. My question is, has it been over used? I'm not going to be as pliable this time around. I wonder how many others feel the same.

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

fudge rounds. As someone who gets a whopping $23.00 a month in SNAP benefits, I usually buy hamburger with mine. I have also been getting something called "Feeding the Gulf Coast." I believe this organization started after Hurricane Michael in 2018. I get a box of nutritious food. And it really is nutritious food. I qualify because I'm over 60.

The problem is that sometimes you get food that you can't or don't eat. I was raised in the generation where you ate cold cereal for breakfast. So, I am not eating oatmeal or grits for breakfast. I also have an iodine allergy, so I can eat very little salmon or tuna. Lately, they have been giving fresh fruits and vegetables, celery, cabbage, sweet potatoes, apples, oranges, and nectarines. Last month they gave away hurricane boxes, which were basically one serving items.

This box is probably worth about $50-$60.00 worth of food. But wouldn't it be cheaper to just give it in food stamps so that I could buy what I want?

up
11 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@Enchantress

with no butter, salt or sugar or raisins. That said, a bit of oatmeal and an egg and herbs and spices can turn your burger into a nize meatloaf. I also mix oatmeal and an egg into a can of tuna (which you don't eat much of) and manage to get about 4 tuna patties out of it. Just a thought.

I was somewhat indigent for a bit

be in one of those counties with the food boxes back in the dawn age. I'd trade the powdered milk for corn syrup and use the corn syrup, well water, a can of blue ribbon malt and some yeast to make beer. Heh. I wonder if he'd be critical of that or not?

be well and have a good one

up
8 users have voted.

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 --

snoopydawg's picture

@Enchantress

help from the government to keep them living. I got shamed for using mine by the store clerks. Once I forgot that I couldn’t buy warm prepared food and I had to leave it because I didn’t have $5 to pay for it. You can’t buy warm food, but you can buy the same item if it came from the cooler. In what fcking world does that make sense? No slice of pizza at the convenience store, but can buy a whole uncooked one. That rule just seems to be a punishment.

But if you got the money instead of what they sent you then you might buy something that they frown upon according to the PTB. I remember when I bought a cheesecake..oh the looks. But that meant not buying lots of other things that the store clerks approved of.

People think that poor people should just get a better education and make money the old fashioned way like rich people do. But poor people don’t even have half the advantages that the rich do because it’s generational poverty. Schools in poor neighborhoods receive less tax money because the people make less money to be taxed unlike the rich schools in richer neighborhoods. That’s not rocket science to figure out.

Russia just pointed out that 30 million people have recently been kicked off the food stamp program and 15 million have been kicked off Medicaid while over $100 billion has been sent to Ukraine and being used to help the people there. $700 for people who have lost everything!

up
9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

but it's the nature of the help...

Russia just pointed out that 30 million people have recently been kicked off the food stamp program and 15 million have been kicked off Medicaid while over $100 billion has been sent to Ukraine and being used to help the people there. $700 for people who have lost everything!

(in Maui)

Food that is shit ain't the answer. It makes for 300 pound people.

My buddies had food stamps (which they really didn't need). They would buy a bunch of steaks with their month's allotment and have a party. Must admit I enjoyed it. But the question, is that the best use of your tax dollars, and that's the point of Oliver's (Chris) lyric about using food stamps to buy fudge rounds. I understand the addiction, but question the funding.

YMMV.

up
3 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

snoopydawg's picture

@Lookout

actually do qualify for food stamps because they don’t make enough money to pay for food.

My buddies had food stamps (which they really didn't need)

Seems to me that they found a way to suck off the system which leaves less money for people who are desperate. Many states are very miserly with the benefits they give while the states go out of their way to give corporations tax breaks and subsidies and it’s only the poor people that others bitch about.

I wouldn’t have been able to afford to buy food period when I first got on SSI which was $775 a month. Why should I have been shamed for accepting the help I so desperately needed? I know others who get food stamps and they share the food with people who I know can afford to buy their own. Instead of cracking down on fraud the poor get penalized and shamed.

And you know better than this:

Food that is shit ain't the answer. It makes for 300 pound people.

Lots of poor people buy food that isn’t good for them because it costs less, but it’s low quality for nutrition. Plus lots of people live in food deserts and the only stores around them are convenience stores that don’t sell nutritional food.

up
4 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

perhaps the song does, but that's a matter of interpretation. My point is by recommending shit food we're poisoning our people. And fudge rounds are shit!

There's cheap healthy foods. We need to educate people about health and nutrition. And you know better than to insinuate that I would suggest people go hungry.

For example I was behind a woman buying canned iced tea and canned biscuits with food stamps....a bag of flour and box of tea would have been cheaper, provide more food, and more be versatile, but I bet they didn't know. I'm blaming the system not the people.

There is no shame in gov't aid. The shame is in the corporate sell job to have people misuse that aid.

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

@Enchantress

is poison to my mind. People can't buy alcohol with stamps but sugary foods are fine...in fact encouraged.

I know you know that there are a lots of obese people in the panhandle. There's a reason. It ain't food stamps it a lack of education. When TPTB said to stop eating healthy fats and base your diet on unhealthy grains and processed foods (General mills cereals are the most healthy foods according to the USDA...see last weeks WW), they did. It's a fact. And since those recs, obesity has skyrocketed.
There are many 300 pound unhealthy (often poor) people across our country. To deny it promotes it.

The foods being provided to you sound healthy to me.

I'm not blaming the people, but the system.

Thanks for your comment.

up
6 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

fits today's theme well and is less dramatic than his usual post.

MARKETS A LOOK AHEAD: Two PERFECT STORMS Are Rapidly Converging. Mannarino (21 min)

up
4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

up
7 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@humphrey

up
4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

soryang's picture

@humphrey Ritter did a great job on these videos. This is the kind of docu that definitely needs to go down the memory hole. What a historical record Scott puts together here. Given the quality of the production, I have to wonder where he got the support. Good for Ritter. When a credible rebuttal doesn't seem possible just ban his work from youtube.

When I saw it, I began to think of about the propaganda thesis he lays out quite well, and the supporting record he presents. It wasn't very subtle. Zelensky's initial acting role as president, and then the transition to the drab military garb, his pose as the proverbial "man of action." Sometimes the biggest lies are the ones most easily swallowed. I started to think about Bernays, Freud, and the WWI propaganda effort documented by Chris Hedges in his Death of the Liberal Class. Somehow while browsing on this aspect of manufacturing images, and propaganda, I came across this French thinker, who had many theories and ideas that fell by the wayside, but his crowd psychology work stood the test of time.

Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Le_Bon

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (French: Psychologie des Foules; literally: Psychology of Crowds) is a book authored by Gustave Le Bon that was first published in 1895.[1][2]

In the book, Le Bon claims that there are several characteristics of crowd psychology: "impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgement of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others..."[1] Le Bon claimed that "an individual immersed for some length of time in a crowd soon finds himself – either in consequence of magnetic influence given out by the crowd or from some other cause of which we are ignorant – in a special state, which much resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds himself in the hands of the hypnotizer."[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crowd:_A_Study_of_the_Popular_Mind#Ext...

It appears Le Bon was a conservative and a social Darwinist, an inchoate aspect of fascism, and the rationale for imperialism, so he wasn't too popular among French intellectual circles. As Himmler did later Le Bon would carry with him on foreign travels a device to measure the skull volume of "inferior races." Looks like he deserves credit for his lasting contribution to the art of propaganda and mass public manipulation.

up
4 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang

had to be removed. I am sure that Ritter has plenty of contacts but they probably pale what is available to the MSM. It just shows how much in the pocket of TPTB that that the press actually is with regards to keeping the public informed.

up
4 users have voted.

@humphrey and it convinced me!
Thanks for that, humphrey.
Fantastic info.

up
2 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

he's been deleted from YT. Too much truth gets you banned it seems.

Have a good evening.

up
5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

calling it quits with this one...

The pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow.
The killer version from Hawaii ..

OFFICIAL Somewhere over the Rainbow - Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole

And if you love this song like I do, the one that first over spoke to me...

Somewhere Over the Rainbow - The Wizard of Oz Movie CLIP (1939)

May be the answer is over the rainbow...or is it blowing in the wind?
Either way, good night my friends.

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lahaina burned.

Joe is going on vacation.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/biden-rents-tahoe-home-from-2020-primary-foe...

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden and his family are vacationing at a Lake Tahoe home belonging to billionaire Tom Steyer, whom Biden defeated in the 2020 Democratic presidential race.

The private home, owned by Steyer and his wife Kat Taylor, is located in the Glenbrook community on the east side of the lake, a popular tourist destination straddling California and Nevada. The Bidens are renting the house “for fair market value,” the White House said in a statement.

The president and first lady Jill Biden plan to spend the week at Lake Tahoe with their family. They arrived late Friday on Air Force One after President Biden hosted a summit meeting at Camp David with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, and plan to depart next Saturday.

Several Biden relatives — including his daughter Ashley, grandchildren Maisy and Naomi and the latter’s husband, Peter Neal — also flew on the presidential jet. Biden’s son Hunter, his wife Melissa Cohen and their son Beau were already at the home when the president landed, according to the White House.

The trip comes one week after Attorney General Merrick Garland made David Weiss, the federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden, a special counsel in order to continue the probe after a plea deal collapsed with the president’s son on tax and gun charges.

The president and first lady will pause their getaway Monday to travel to Maui, where wildfires killed at least 114 people and destroyed the seaside town of Lahaina. They will meet with federal, state and local officials, tour fire-damaged areas and speak with survivors and first responders, according to the White House.

Biden vacationed earlier this month in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he owns a home. He received criticism while at the beach last weekend when he curtly responded “no comment” to reporters who asked about the death toll in Maui.

up
6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@humphrey

from hilary? Would serve him right. But then others would have to risk their lives to save him.
Thanks for the up date!

up
3 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

janis b's picture

I can understand how the following stanza could be interpreted by some as fat and welfare shaming, and therefore objectionable. In the context of the complete song I hear it more like a lament that the conditions of life for the majority, created by the rich and powerful are tragic - Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground

Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground
'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down

up
6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@janis b

I think it struck a nerve revealing America's angst. I understand how previous commenters might be offended. I would have focused on the waste in all our wars, but it isn't my song. I appreciate and agree with your take on it. Funny how people focus on those lines when he is clearly pointing blame at the Rich Men North of Richmond (ie DC).

Hope all is well in your world!

up
4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@Lookout ...but when I heard that line, I was more inclined to think Langley.

Either way, time to relocate the seat of government far away from the centuries-old aorta of American fascism, is what I've been thinking; it's been done before, after all. One thing I learned many years ago is that EVERYTHING bad about America can be traced back to the original Plymouth and/or Jamestown colonies.

up
4 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

TheOtherMaven's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

EVERYTHING bad about America can be traced back to the original Plymouth and/or Jamestown colonies

The Civil War vastly accelerated the drive of the US toward monolithic control and unilateral arrogance, both very bad things which have only festered and fermented until we are where we are now, living in a de facto totalitarian police state with designs on total global sovereignty.

up
4 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@TheOtherMaven ...did that event add anything qualitatively new, or was it just a quantitative escalation of properties already there?

"Monolithic control" comes from Jamestown and its powder-keg structure of a few oligarchs over myriad restless have-nots (from which we get racism as it is known in America - "divide and conquer").

"Unilateral arrogance" comes from Puritan Plymouth and its self-image as a "city on a hill" in a fundamentally evil world ("The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad." - Friedrich Nietzsche).

From there, it's not hard to see how the Civil War could be interpreted as the inevitable(???) wrong-way-rubbing between these two dystopiae.

up
1 user has voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

TheOtherMaven's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

The Plymouth colonists were a random mix of Separatists, more radical even than the Puritans, and generic wannabes. (Myles Standish was a generic wannabe.)

The two colonies were separate entities originally, but started interacting more and more closely with each other until they were formally integrated in 1691-92.

up
2 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

soryang's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat ...it reminded me of the book, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, by Nancy Isenberg.

up
2 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直