More Fruit And Vegetables

The price of all food has skyrocketed into the stratosphere and the government is doing nothing about the drain on the wealth of the public.

But there is a Rep that is at least trying to bang some help through the House but she must contend with the pseudo-human Johnson.

Rep. Jayapal is using a Seattle program as a guide….

As Americans face rising grocery prices under President Donald Trump and rally behind progressive policies and primary candidates, US Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Thursday introduced a bill that shows what kind of proposals could become reality with more Democrats like her in Congress.

Inspired by a program in her own district in Washington state, the chair emerita of the Congressional Progressive Caucus introduced the Fresh Bucks for Fresh Produce Act, which would create a pilot program at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that gives households earning 80% or less of their area’s median income $60 per month to buy fruits and vegetables.

The USDA pilot would be modeled on Seattle’s Fresh Bucks initiative, in which enrolled households “experience a 31% higher rate of food security and consume at least three daily servings of fruits and vegetables 37% more often than those assigned to a program waitlist,” according to University of Washington (UW) research published last August.

“I would classify both of those numbers as pretty large,” study co-author Jessica Jones-Smith a professor at UW and University of California, Irvine, said at the time. “We don’t routinely see interventions that work that well. It’s a pretty big impact on diet in terms of what we can do from a policy perspective and expect to make a difference in food insecurity.”

In Seattle—generally ranked as an expensive but livable metropolis—a single person living within city limits on a monthly income of $7,070, or $84,850 a year, can apply for the program. For a family of four, it’s $10,095 per month, or $121,150 annually. In January, the city the welcomed over 4,500 more local households off its waitlist and increased monthly benefits from $40 to $60.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-food-assistance

A good program but will probably go nowhere as long as the MAGA morons run the House….that could change come 2027….we can only hope that there will be some help for the people of this nation coming with the next election.

God knows we are not getting much from the slugs in power now.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Falling Out Of Love

+++This post ought to get the juices flowing especially from mental midgets.+++

The whole idea of capitalism is losing some of its luster….and some are rethinking socialism….before we go any further most people’s concept of socialism is wrong…..and Dems are definitely NOT socialists.  (It is that damn simple)….instead of believe what dimwit tells you and before you commit to believing bullshit maybe do some research (hahahaha…sorry that was just too funny)

This is a post from IST from 5 years ago….

Who’s Afraid Of The “S” Word

Even back then the capitalistic luster was fading….fast forward to 2025….

Both Democrats and independents view capitalism less positively this year, as well. Less than half of Democrats, 42 percent, have a positive image of capitalism. Just over half of independents feel the same, compared to three-quarters of Republicans (whose views on the economic system haven’t changed since 2010).

What about the alternatives? Socialism still polls positively for 39 percent of respondents, holding steady since 2019.

But if you dig a little deeper, there are two diverging perspectives hidden behind that steady number: Democrats’ view of socialism has been increasing, while Republicans’ view has been decreasing.

While around 50 percent of Democrats had a positive view of socialism in 2010, nearly two-thirds do today. They’re the only partisan group who view socialism more positively than capitalism, at 66 to 44 percent, respectively.

It’s not hard to see why people may be fed up with the economic status quo. The cost of buying a home has skyrocketed, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, and wages haven’t kept up. And since 2001, rents have risen 10 times faster than income.

Democratic socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders and New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani have become more popular recently, as voters look to leaders who acknowledge that the cost of living is unacceptable.

Things have gotten so bad, it seems that even President Donald Trump may have lost his faith in capitalism—just ask Intel or Nippon.

(newrepublic.com)

People are starting to realize that all capitalism is doing is expanding the wealth of the already rich and driving more and more people into poverty.

CNN has covered this subject as well…

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/23/politics/republicans-capitalism-socialism-poll

The House has taken it upon itself to vote on a stupid and worthless issue….

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution condemning socialism Friday morning, with several Democrats crossing the aisle to rebuke “socialist policies” in the U.S. following Zohran Mamdani’s recent election as the mayor-elect of New York City.

Eighty-six Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure in a 285-98 vote. Two members, Rep. Deborah Ross, D-Pa., and Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., voted present.

Notably, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — who endorsed Mamdani just days before the mayoral election — also voted in favor of the measure.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/86-dems-republicans-condemn-socialism-wake-mamdanis-mayoral-victory

I say worthless because their idiotic vote does NOT represent the voting public….and if I am not mistaken their job is to vote what the people are wanting….right?

Donny is governing with his brand of ‘state capitalism’

When House Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.) lashed out at last weekend’s “No Kings” rallies soon to arrive on Washington’s National Mall, he reached for an old conservative refrain: “They hate capitalism. They hate our free enterprise system.”

I am sure he’s correct about some of the protesters. But the message rings hollow coming from a party leader that stands by as President Donald Trump does precisely what Johnson rightly decries: substituting political control for market choice and ruling by executive order.

Indeed, what began as a populist revolt against so-called elites has become a program of state ownership, price fixing and top-down industrial control. Take a look.

Recently, the Trump administration quietly converted CHIPS Act subsidies into an $8.9 billion equity purchase in Intel, making Washington a 10 percent owner of one of America’s largest technology companies. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick insists “this is not socialism.” That’s semantics.

Socialism is government control of the means of production. When the government becomes your largest shareholder, that’s a strong first step.

https://reason.com/2025/10/23/the-gops-capitalism-is-central-planning-with-maga-branding/

If you are one of those people that fears socialism even thought you have no idea what it is, then you should be worried about your boy Donny for he is taking a first step.

That should give you something to think about….oh wait….thinking?  That is a novel concept for the MAGA loyal.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

One Step Closer?

For most of this year the Dems have been trying to make it a policy that the president cannot go to war without permission from the Congress and yesterday they may have come one step closer to making it so….

Lawmakers in the House just sent another warning shot over President Trump’s Iran policy. On Thursday, they passed a Democratic-backed war powers resolution aimed at curbing his ability to continue the conflict, with four Republicans crossing the aisle in a 214–208 vote. GOP Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Warren Davidson of Ohio, and Tom Barrett of Michigan sided with Democrats on the resolution to require congressional approval for the war, the Washington Post reports. The same four Republicans voted for a similar resolution last month, before the conflict reignited with daily US strikes on Iran.

The resolution’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, said the war has “no clear mission, no strategy, no end goal.” The measure doesn’t go to Trump’s desk and is widely viewed as symbolic, and any binding curb on his authority would almost certainly face a veto. Still, with the Senate weighing its own war powers measure Thursday morning, the move underscores mounting bipartisan unease over a grinding conflict that has recently intensified, including the deaths of four US troops in the region over the weekend, Politico reports.

During debate on the resolution, Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, read out the names of the 18 US service members killed since the war began, the AP reports. “To belittle this mission is to belittle and demean the very service these members gave their life for,” he said. “Their sacrifice was not meaningless. This operation is bringing reckoning for the hundreds of times Iran has attacked and killed people of the United States of America.” The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, said presidents are supposed to obtain congressional approval for wars. The service members, he said, died in “an illegal unauthorized war that the American people don’t want.”

This is not a done deal but at least we are closer to making Donny ask permission before bombing more countries…..which is a good idea for he is considering another country to be bombed…..

President Trump is considering opening a new military front in another nation, with advisers weighing military strikes in Mali against an al-Qaeda-linked group known as JNIM, reports the Washington Post. The idea is reportedly championed inside the National Security Council by foreign policy hawks such as Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s counterterrorism director, but faces resistance from other senior officials, according to current and former unnamed officials who spoke to the Post. The militant group’s stronghold is in Mali, but it has launched regional attacks throughout West Africa.

The US is pressing African and NATO partners to support Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in the Sahel region. All are ruled by juntas that have ousted democratic leaders and turned to Russia for security help, and the US faults Moscow for being a weak partner. Critics warn US strikes could entangle Washington with Russian forces, empower Islamic State rivals, or push JNIM to target Americans and deepen ties to al-Qaeda. Others argue force is needed to keep jihadist groups from cementing a stronger foothold in the region. If approved, Mali would become the eighth country where Trump has ordered strikes in his second term, after Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, and Venezuela, per the New Republic.

Time for the Congress to put on the brakes on Donny’s blood lust and he is not alone….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Just Another Pervert In The House

WE have another GOP pervert in the House of Representatives and this one is another one from Ohio….

The first pervert was Jim Jordan…..

Jordan was an assistant coach with Ohio State University’s wrestling program from 1987 to 1995.

Richard Strauss was the wrestling team physician during Jordan’s tenure. Strauss died by suicide in 2005.  In April 2018, Ohio State University began an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Strauss.  The report concluded that Strauss had committed sexual abuse against 177 student-patients.  The majority of abuse (143 victims) was categorized as genital fondling associated with medically unnecessary genital or rectal examinations. Of the 177, 153 were student-athletes, of which a plurality (48) were members of the men’s wrestling team.

Several involved persons have stated that Jordan surely knew of Strauss’s criminal misconduct but did not report it.  While at least one victim has named Jordan as knowledgeable of accusations against Strauss, Head Coach Russ Hellickson said he may not have known about the abuse.  A spokesperson for Jordan denied the allegation, saying that Jordan “never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had, he would have dealt with it”. No wrestlers have accused Jordan himself of sexual misconduct, but four former wrestlers named him as a defendant in a lawsuit against the university.  Jordan has denied any wrongdoing and has described his accusers as “pawns in a political plot”.

Let’s be honest if the accusations had been made against a Dem all Hell would have been brought against him….and yet Jordan is still acting like a human in the House.

Ohio has a new pervert in the news….

In mid-March, two detectives, an Ohio county Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) caseworker, and a Cleveland Clinic physician met on Zoom to discuss how the 2-year-old daughter of a congressman and granddaughter of a US senator wound up with a broken collarbone.

“The bruising surrounding the clavicle fracture made the injury suspicious,” wrote one of the detectives who summarized the Zoom meeting. Further, someone on the call “advised the injury would have required a high degree of impact to occur.”

Neither the child’s father, Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), nor mother, conservative policy adviser Emily Moreno, admitted to knowing what caused their daughter’s injury or that it occurred while their daughter was under their care. Miller’s primary theory was that the bruising resembled marks from a seat belt. Moreno, who discovered the bruises and took the child to an emergency room, suggested the cause may have been something more sinister. Records of the investigation into potential child abuse show that Moreno told detectives that Miller had previously thrown hot water at her, shoved her, and held a gun to her head; therefore, she couldn’t rule out that Miller caused their daughter’s fracture. Moreover, a child protection specialist reviewing the incident had characterized the bruising near the fracture as resembling a “handprint.”

Assault, Misogyny, Verbal Threats: Records Detail New Allegations Against Rep. Max Miller

Just another Repub pervert in the Congress…..no big deal, right?

He should have been gone after the hint of scandal….kick his ass to the curb.

What say you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Glenn Beck, The Equivocator

I have never thought Glenn Beck was particularly intellectual as a matter of fat when on CNN I found his show mostly crap….and a little too religious for my liking….and then he moved on and started his own specialty website and the crap just kept flowing.

I will say that recently I found his stuff extremely humorous, at least for me, because he takes issues to the extreme and they makes it even more laughable…..

This is his most recent humor…..

 

https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/glenn-beck-far-left-democrats-are-plotting-to-destroy-america-right-in-front-of-our-eyes

 

Seriously, they will destroy America?  I think his buddies the christian nationalists and those slime merchants in MAGA have been doing a fine job of that exact thing….I guess they do not want any competition.

Anyone dispute my conclusion?

I Read, I Write, You Know

Lego ergo scribo”

What’s In A Name?

Since the death of poor Lindsey and the rise of his sister to the highest place in the government….at first I thought she might be her own person but that belief was smashed to pieces when she embraced the whole MAGA BS….

In a show of support for President Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline, has dropped her married name, “Nordone,” and will instead go by her maiden name.

Graham, who took over the remainder of her brother’s Senate term after his sudden death despite having no prior political experience, quietly made the announcement during an interview with Sean Hannity. The name change was noticed in a lower third on the Fox News show.

“I’ll continue to say I’ve been praying a lot, talking to my family,” said Graham as the graphic below her read “Exclusive interview with Senator Darline Graham.” She added, “But with the love of my family, with the support of his staff, I know I’m a hard worker.“

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/lindsey-grahams-sister-changes-name-1949287

Not to worry just another scheming toad in the the Senate who will embrace MAGA beliefs in the destruction of society as we know it.

She needs to be replaced and soon….but do the people of South Carolina have it in them to replace her?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Fight The Enemy Within

Ever since a DSA member won the election of mayor of NYC the Dems have been waging a war against what some call the left wing of the party.

The GOP and its ilk are called the winners socialists, Marxists, Communists and those are the polite names…..the MAGA twats are trying desperately to side line the progressives in the Democratic Party.

Then the corporate Dems are doing the same thing only are being a bit more polite…..people like Carville, Plouf, Khanna, Schumer, Fetterman, by all accounts an idiot, even overpaid sports casters get into the fray like Stephen Smith, who needs to stick to calling soccer games and leave the politics to others….these twats are joining the fight against the tide of progressive candidates…..accusing them of all sorts of things…..dirt bags, factionalist, etc etc….

This is weird…..

Pundits close to the Democratic establishment have a new term to fling at the left-wing insurgents they want to disappear: “factionalism.”

Matthew Yglesias now constantly attacks socialists and their leading figures on the basis that they believe in “factionalism and anty-partyism,” or have “a whole factional project,” “factional talking point[s],” a “passion for factionalism.” At first, he took up this line over the Graham Platner candidacy, but now Yglesias uses it to refer to any attempt by the Left to replace establishment-friendly incumbents by beating them in primary races.

Center for American Progress President and CEO Neera Tanden agreed. Platner should have been solely attacking his Republican opponent, “not attacking Dems in factional fights,” she tweeted. Socialists had to be stopped from “giving away the Michigan Senate seat for factional reasons the way they tried (and likely succeeded in) giving away the Maine seat,” warned former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum.

Even the cryptocurrency industry has gotten in on the act, with crypto investment firm executive and former Securities and Exchange Commission official Justin Slaughter adding his voice to the chorus warning that the Platner scandal was the doing of “a coherent and focused faction” more interested in remaking the Democratic Party than beating Donald Trump.

…

As one example, recall that to stop Bernie Sanders from winning the nomination in 2020, they coalesced around a candidate, Joe Biden, who they had openly acknowledged was cognitively unfit and whom they had little faith in. As we found out last year, Biden was so out of it, when they filmed him interacting with ordinary voters for that year’s Democratic convention, those who saw the footage were alarmed and convinced he couldn’t serve, and it required “creative” editing to salvage.

In other words, the factionalism-driven election disaster that party centrists are now accusing the Left of trying to engineer is exactly what they already did, risking handing the White House to Trump a second time because they were so desperate to stop Sanders. As Biden’s own adviser acknowledged, that this didn’t happen was only thanks to pure dumb luck, after a global pandemic meant Biden didn’t have to campaign or be regularly seen in public. Self-defeating “factionalism” is alive and well in the Democratic Party — but it’s coming from the establishment side.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/waging-war-on-the-left-within-the-democratic-party-wont-work/

Dems are trying hard to squash the up and coming candidates….why?

They are fighting hard….so does that mean these corporate Dems are against Healthcare, Green New Deal, Democracy for all, end the run away war machine, there is more?

If so then someone please let me know what are these cowards trying to accomplish?

Apparently it is not to make life better for the people of this nation….then what?

Personally I have never trusted centrists….they pretend that bi-partisanship is their goal but never seem to find the handle.

I will take a progressive any day over some corporate funded Democrat hands down.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo

Adak, A Ghost Town

A colossal waste!

When my late wife, Sue, was in the Navy she served on an Alaskan island in Adak…..and recently I read an article about the island she served on for awhile….

On an island in the Bering Sea 1,200 miles from Anchorage sits an abandoned house on an abandoned Navy base. There is no furniture, and the wind blows through broken windows. The last people to live here moved away long ago. Yet a bright orange pipe with a black fiber-optic cable inside runs from the outer wall down into the surrounding soil.

The cable was installed to connect the home to the internet after the base closed. It costs more than $340,000 per year to provide this building and hundreds of others — all but a few of them empty — with internet access no one says they use.

The money being wasted is yours.

It comes from a fee added to nearly every American’s phone bill as part of a Federal Communications Commission subsidy program intended to bring fast, affordable internet to remote towns.

Reporting this year by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica has found that the multibillion-dollar Universal Service Fund pays for what often amounts to slow internet access for customers who actually no longer use it.

The FCC keeps the money flowing to telecom companies regardless of their owners’ track records. It kept paying a Fairbanks company to provide internet service while its owner served federal prison time for tax evasion. The government kept paying Alaska’s largest telecom, GCI, even after it signed a settlement for alleged fraud related to the subsidy. (The settlement said it was neither an admission of guilt by GCI nor a concession by the Justice Department that the claims were not well founded.)

On This Nearly Deserted Alaska Island, You Pay to Keep Hundreds of Empty Buildings Wired for Internet

Just another story of how the US government wastes countless dollars and yet cannot seem to help people with their problems.

Time for a change of government….we need help….and we need it now.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Ghost Of Gramsci

This is my continuing series on the success that the DSA has recently had at the polls and the meltdown that the Right is having dealing with this success…..passing out propaganda like candy to a 6 year old and it is working…..

Gramsci?  If you are not familiar with the workings of socialism then the name means little to Americans and yet the Washington Times invoked his name.

Before I go any further a quick lesson on Gramsci….

Key points:

  1. Historical materialism reworked
  • Society is shaped by material conditions but mediated by culture, institutions, and political practice.
  • Emphasis on how social forces, ideas and institutions interact over time to produce historical change.
  1. Hegemony
  • Core concept: ruling classes secure consent for their rule by shaping common-sense beliefs, moral frameworks, and cultural norms.
  • Hegemony = domination through a combination of coercion (state apparatuses, police, law) and consent (civil society: schools, churches, media, unions, cultural institutions).
  • Hegemony is never absolute; it requires continual work to maintain and is always contested.
  1. Civil society vs. political society
  • Distinction between political society (state, law, coercive institutions) and civil society (associations, culture, education, media).
  • Civil society is the terrain where hegemony is produced and reproduced; control of civil society is crucial for long-term stability of a social order.

Very basic but if you want more…..https://theconversation.com/antonio-gramsci-his-philosophy-explained-286341

That out of the way this is the bullshit article that made me go to this rant….

 

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jul/14/democrats-embrace-gramscis-marxist-playbook-america/

 

Just another MAGA rag that spread manure like it was real…..

Personally I think Gramsci was an excellent thinker and some of his ideas deserve a second look….but think about this MAGA and the GOP have been using his concepts for many decades….so is he all that wrong?

Questions?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Are We Containing The Wrong Country?

Our worthless wars for the last several decades have been about containing this country or that…..our present conflict is about containing Iran and its influence in the Middle East….but is it possible we are containing the wrong country?

An excellent point comes out of the small country of Oman on the boot of the Arabian peninsula and at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz…..

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi penned an op-ed for the French outlet Le Monde on Tuesday. The article was a call for a new political and security architecture in the Gulf region, and served as a clear indictment not only for the current, disastrous war of choice that the United States and Israel initiated against Iran, but of forty-seven years of Western policy in the Gulf region.

The attention-grabbing statement comes when al-Busaidi notes the fundamental flaw of international policy in the Gulf was that it treated Iran as an existential threat to the security of the gulf region. In fact, he argues, the real threat comes from “decisions that are made in Tel Aviv.”

Unfortunately, although al-Busaidi is correct in his assertion, he merely states it as fact. He does nothing to support that point. That is a sorely missed opportunity.

Al-Busaidi has some genuine cache in diplomatic circles. He was the negotiator who managed to win a deal between the U.S. and Iran in February that would have significantly limited Iran’s nuclear program and allow for intrusive inspections. Donald Trump chose to blow that deal up by attacking Iran instead, at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

If al-Busaidi had decided to use some of that credibility to elaborate on why Israel is the threat to Gulf stability rather than Iran, it would have been impactful.

Oman’s Foreign Minister to the West: You’ve been containing the wrong country

Finally someone publishing what many of us have been saying for 50+ years.

I totally agree with the foreign minister’s analysis and if you look at the history of the Middle East then a smart person will agree as well.

Israel has been the cause of more civilian deaths than any other country in the region…..they have attacked and destroyed in the name of security, which is a false narrative.

Sadly Israel will always have a free hand as long as the US is controlled by AIPAC money and a lame religious dogma.

I wish to thank al-Busaidi for speaking the truth.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”