Incompetent or in on it?

I got a check from New York State for $150 as part of the state’s “ongoing battle to fight inflation.” One hundred fifty dollars, imagine that. It’s laughable and embarrassing that they think that for $150 we’re going to believe that they’re actually doing something to help people. My household is just my fiancee and I, and we can’t go to the grocery store without spending $100, and that doesn’t even include meat and fish which I buy separately. And we’re going to the grocery store 2 - 3 times per week. So where does $150 get someone really?

It’s crumbs compared to what the government pisses away on a daily basis. But crumbs for the people is the history of this country. Politicians hand out crumbs to shut people up, and we accept those crumbs as something being better than nothing, and forget what it is we have been fighting for.

The timing of this check is interesting because the hope of crumbs is what the Democrats accepted to end the government shut down. A lot of people are pissed off about it (watch Jon Stewarts excellent take). They think that they sold out the American people, but the reality is they never actually cared about the American people. If they did then we wouldn’t be in a position as a country where food insecurity persists, and millions of people remain without health insurance, and millions more can barely afford the insurance they do have.

If they cared, they would have shored up those basic rights years ago when they were in control, the way Republicans are now in control. Everyone on the left wants to blame the right for the lack of progress in this country, but I blame the left. They too have controlled all branches of government multiple times in the last 50 years and yet they have never accomplished any of the things they have promised. Always instead blaming the republicans for holding up their agenda. And yet when the Republicans take control, they seem to to get done what they want.

So which one is it? Is the right blocking their agenda? Is the left too incompetent to get anything done? Or do they just not actually give a shit as long as they’re able to stay in power? I think a $150 check to fight inflation is all you need to know to figure out the answer.

It blows my mind how our government lets people go hungry

It's so fucking dumb that we live in a country where there are organizations fighting to end hunger while our government is simultaneously starving people. We all support these organizations fighting to feed people pretending like it's ok that millions of people in this country fail to get their daily nourishment, and like it’s normal that this responsibility falls on the shoulders of everyone but the organization we pay trillions in dollars to. The government.

It blows my mind how easily we all turn a blind eye and pretend like its ok. Like its normal. Like all the money we choose to spend on wars, destruction, and to further line peoples pockets instead of helping people is just the way it is. Why? Why do we pretend like it is? Why do we pretend like it's just the way it has to be.

I read a few articles about Zohran Mamdani and his ideas for NYC. I didn't think any of them were crazy. Raising the minimum wage to something livable, where people would only have to work one job to have a life. Funding groceries stores with tax dollars so everyone can eat. Freezing rents for people living in rent controlled apartments. All these things to help the people that are struggling and the response I heard from the people who's taxes would increase is I'm going to leave the city. Business is going to leave the city.

Rather than being part of something historic, like giving people a break, people and businesses are like no we're just going to leave, and then what will you do? How shitty of a person do you have to be for that to be your stance? You're a millionaire, a billionaire, and rather than fork some more money into the pot you want to leave to prove a point and drain the city.

People are sometimes shitty. But I'm glad that the majority are waking up to that realization. As the divide grows bigger so does the number of people who are struggling and who are realizing that they have to band together to protect themselves by electing people who will fight for regulations that serve them. That they need to stop pretending like living in the richest country in the world and not having anything to eat, anywhere to live, is ok.

That's what the election of a Democratic Socialist in New York City says, and that's what the overwhelming support of propositions in Colorado to support free school meals for kids k-12 says. That we're sick and tired and we won’t stand for it any more.

1 percent rejoice, 99 percent starve

Two headlines appeared in my news feed today. The stock market hit all time highs, while the most vulnerable portion of our population is in danger of losing their food benefits. How could those two things be true at the same time? How could a small but powerful percentage of our population be celebrating, while the large and vulnerable percentage of our population is no doubt riddled with fear and anxiety? What does that say about the direction, or current state, of our country?

I read the other day that 50 percent of the spending in this country is from 10 percent of the population. Let that sink in. How sustainable of a situation is that when 10 percent of the population is propping up the economy? What could possibly go wrong?

On my local ballot for this election period is two questions. One, do you agree to let the state keep excess tax collected above projections to pay for food for children in the upcoming year. Two, do you agree we should raise taxes on households making more than $300,000 to fund food for children in the years to come? And I'm torn on the second one.

While I want every kid in this state, in every state across the country and the world, to have all their meals for free, I struggle with the idea of raising taxes to pay for it when I know how misallocated billions and trillions of tax dollars already are. Funding foreign wars in the last 2 – 3 years alone has cost of over $250 billion as a nation. The proposal to bail out Argentina could cost us another $30 billion.

We already have the money to feed everyone in this country but time and time again we choose not to, and instead fund destructive wars, or provide aid to everyone but our own. And every year its a question of whether or not we can pay for safety net program like SNAP, like Medicaid.

So how do I continue to vote to raise taxes when I know that at some point down the line, even if this ballot measure passes and funds school meals for now, it will eventually be used for something malevolent. It's a shitty and maddening position to be in. And they know that. That's why the opposition to the measure isn't to reallocate funds away from wars and corporate greed. The opposition is: taxes bad.

And I agree, new taxes are bad. But in this case not providing meals to children is far worse and I figure I'll let someone else figure out why we're pissing our money away to foreign countries for purposes of destruction and corruption instead of actually helping them. And in the interim I'll vote yes to raise taxes and feed children.