cost of living is still rising.

I'm thinking about cutting out my meat consumption, or at least abstaining from it most of the time. But everything is high! Maybe I'll get some chickens and get the free eggs and occasional Sunday dinner. I know, it isn't free, but much cheaper. The people down the street have a rooster that runs around everywhere. He even runs around the parking lot of the store next door. Is there something you can give chickens to keep them quiet?

I can just see myself getting up early and shooting at the rooster so he'll be quiet.

And this wasn't filet mignon - just steak and (!) hamburger meat.

When Germany underwent inflation in the 30's, the
Jews were blamed... and this was successful for a good
while.

The real culprits were the money and power brokers
like Krupp and other profiteers, some of them American
like Prescott Bush.

But here today it's not so easy. The cult won't care, but
they are a small minority... and the rest of the people
won't have it.

Everything. Absolutely everything you buy is there because of diesel fuel. That fact will hit like a stone thrown into a pool. The waves are starting.

It will be like 2008. Maybe even worse.

tomatoes (4), ginger root, Serrano peppers (5),1 box cereal, quart milk, whipping cream, small ice cream, and $32 of pork loin cutlets... $89 ( with loyalty discount of $10 )

Trump is burning America to the ground.

Mofo

Yes, the cowardly party that was once called Republicans but which are now just Nazi MAGAs are very much to blame, too, but the orange asshole shouldn't be ignored either.

And they are burning America to the ground.

are in the process of making the mistake the twentieth century robber barons made 100 years ago - they are stealing everything in sight and sucking money directly out of the treasury.

Years of irresponsible 'supply-side' trickle-down tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy have caused the government to have to cut programs that help Americans so these modern tech-bro billionaire robber barons can line their pockets, build their bunkers, and impose massive data centers that use millions of gallons of water a day, suck enough power off the grid to energize whole cities. This is a visible metaphor that shows in no uncertain terms the diseased lust of these people at our expense.

If Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer and the rest of the institutionalists come back after Trump thinking it can just be business as usual, they will be making a big mistake. People across this country are furious at a government that seems in the pocket of thieves and grifters and literally cannot get anything done.

While institutional Democratic donors may be happy I am most definitely NOT happy with much of anything. Trump is demonstrably a Russian agent who does the bidding of Putin, whose goal has been to win the cold war. And so he has because it will take decades to undo the damage of these white supremacists who are now in power.

In the meantime, I see YouTube vids of young kids buried in student debt who are having meltdowns because they work their asses off and cannot even pay the bills. I am beginning to see 1789 tropes and the word 'guillotine' is repeatedly coming up.

If the Democrats want to rebuild our republic, they will likely need to gut the whole thing, and pull the teeth of Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, and the political industrial complex (We want to do the right thing! We will FIGHT for you! Rush a donation!).

What they will have to do:
1. Get rid of the electoral college and hackable voting machines.
2. Reinstitute the Voting Rights Act and give it teeth.
3. Change the rules of corporate governance from shareholder primacy, which holds profits over people and the environment, encourages and rewards sociopathic behavior, to a stakeholder approach that a) holds the interests of workers, consumers and the environment EQUAL to profits, and includes a clause requiring truth and balance in news reporting - essentially a twenty-first century fairness doctrine.
4. Impeach all of McConnell's picks they ramrodded through AFTER refusing to honor Obama's. Get rid of them all and repeople the Supreme Court and federal courts with justices and judges who do not legislate white supremacy from the bench.
5. Reverse Citizens United.
6. Raise taxes on corporations so they go back to paying in around 35% of the government's income tax revenue, and reduce the load for individuals from the current 50.4% down to its 1970 ratio of 45%.
7. Impose a wealth tax that literally taxes billionaires out of existance.
8. Ensure the SACRED TRUSTS of Social Security and Medicare are upheld.
9. Ignore the fucking lobbies and pass universal healthcare expanding the existing Medicaid infrastructure to cover all Americans. Allow the government to negotiate prices for drugs and medical billing.
10. Develop and pass a sane immigration policy that ensures availability of seasonal farm labor and brings in skilled immigrants.
11. Reverse Dobbs.
12. Completely revise campaign finance laws to REMOVE corporate corruption.
13. Impose block-chain systems on government departments, YES even the 'war' department, so transparency in spending is guaranteed and corporate corruption chased out of our national governement.
14. Dramatic cuts in military spending while AT THE SAME TIME creating jobs through renewables, agritech and employee-owned corporations that help communities work together to meet their needs. We can take a real page from Mamdani on that.
15. Related to the last point, we need a sane environmental policy that phases out coal, oil and gas while bringing in nuclear fusion, solar, wind, hydroelectric and see if we can figure out what Tesla said he discovered - that the earth's electromagnetic energy could power the whole grid. Gee, I wonder where the giant trunks of Tesla's notes went to after William Trump (Donald's uncle) reviewed them and then they mysteriously disappeared.
16. Release of entire unredacted Epstein files, investigations, trials and accountability for these immoral billionaire child rapists and murderers.
17. Investigations of the massive corruption of the Trump administration, and members of Congress who have profited from insider trading, market manipulations and just plain stolen billions in public monies. I mean, why is the government paying 2X or 3X listing price for these warehouses they want to make into concentration camps? Where is that excess money going? All kinds of shit like that. Across the board. GET RID OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION.

In short, the Democrats like AOC, Mamdani and other progressives, WHO ARE NOT ULTRA-LEFT RADICALS, will have to build a whole new republic from the ashes of the old corrupt system. We still have a chance, but we need people who have some guts. Gavin Newsom is doing some good stuff, BUT himself is an institutionalist, as evidenced by him coming out again the wealth tax that is on CA's ballot this november because he does not want to preside over the flight of the billionaires.

Fuck the billionaires. They are nothing but thieves. They do not create jobs, and these data centers are NOT for AI. We already have enough AI. They are to impose a surveillance state to ensure the oligarchs can stay in power and keep stealing wealth from everyone else. That is the sad truth.

It is all about greed and lust for power. We have to find ways to get rid of the corruption that has caused since the robber barons first tried a coup on FDR way back in 1935 AND WERE NOT HELD ACCOUNTABLE. They have been fighting the long fight, Wall Street has, and now it is right out in the open.

Our choice what we build from the ashes of the now-defunct Pax-Americana. The downfall of the empire, if you will.

WE NEED TO GET BACK TO A REPUBLIC OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE.

It has been too long since that has been the truth, if it ever has. Now is the time to begin really getting off our asses and perfecting the republic.

Or not. Again, always our choice.

...because even if Dems win majorities in both the House and Senate this fall, we won't have the votes to override The Felon's vetoes.

we're more likely to see people who have starved to death lying in the streets than soup lines.

Traffic has been brisk for years.

we don't do grocery shopping until the fridge and pantry are just about empty. We rely on leftovers a lot.
We go out to eat maybe 6 times a year.

We thought we had a great retirement fund - who thought that prices would skyrocket so badly?
I'm starting to consider selling our home to curb expenses - even though I love it here.
Too much property to take care of - very high property taxes- maintenance on a 135 year old house and cost of living is draining our resources. My wardrobe has diminished to mostly jeans and work shirts and Birkenstocks .

And this asshole wants me to pay for his crass birthday celebration.

Say thanks to every one of your republican acquaintances.

... in our local Supermarket. And that's the flimsy shit; forget the heavy-duty stuff, which is only available in extra-wide rolls at the moment, and at an astronomical price.
Putin must be SO happy with his useful idiot.

Who knew that Canada is or was our biggest aluminum supplier. And the Gulf states are a major player in aluminum markets. The world is complicated. That's why rational people move slowly and with care. But not the orange senile old man.

https://oilprice.com/Metals/Commodities/Aluminum-Market-Facing-Serious-and-Prolonged-Supply-Outage.html

Saw a package of oxtails at a local store near where we live.

Over $9.00 per pound.

The havoc that will arise when the sans culottes can no longer take it will be apocalyptic.

...that Republicans have made worse. Democrats need to have actual plans to alleviate some of these cost pressures--many of which are out of anyone's control.

I'm not saying that Democrats do not have such plans. When your opponent is shooting themselves in the foot you do not get in the way.

But it is not going to be electorally beneficial in the 2028 cycle to have pulled a [REDACTED] and appear to be saying, "[l]ook, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard. But I think that they will." ( https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-yes-trump-said-005500635.html )

The reality is that tariffs and fuel prices are only a part of the reason for rising food costs, and there need to be some specific plans for how to deal with the stickier reasons for the increase: crop yields due to climate change, outbreaks of disease in farm animals, labor constraints, the cost of land and rent for grocery chains, non-fuel transportation issues, the estimated 16 billion pounds of food thrown away by grocery stores every year, etc.

Failure to fight hard for real change that the American people see will likely only result in a president Vance or Rubio in 2028.

Let's hope that is not the path we are on.

Is what we have at the current pricing and stock levels.

Retailers have "just in time" stocking and as the fuel prices continue to spike the prices will go up exponentially.

Last year farmers couldn't hire

We will probably run low on food.

I recommend that you stock your pantry and freezer as much as you can afford. You will be happy you did.

I don't know how much more we can take. I keep reading that depression and mental health issues are escalating.
This honestly can't go on. Not only did he and his rabid cabal kill thousands with his mishandling of covid, now he is affecting our mental health.

He is truly the embodiment of evil. Heck of a time to cut back on my wine consumption.

Enshittification means the line must always go up, which means cost-cutting in every way possible. If / when Trump leaves, nothing will change.

We need to get off fossil fuels, automate what we can, stop eating so much meat, and, stop chasing endless profit and growth.

Of course, none of these will ever happen, so, the consequences will continue.

They'll believe him. Go figure!

My family does fairly well financially, and I know we’re cutting back on groceries, driving, etc.

The majority party in Washington is flat out drunk on spending tax payer dollars for vanity projects, wars of distraction, and “official travel.” Actual working people are being fleeced day in and day out. It’s going to boil over.

Beef, veal and pork have been my taboo list since 2004, or else my cardiologist will disown me. I’m told that the red meat lowest in cholesterol is bison, but you don’t see that on Cape Cod anyway. But we rent a house, and my wife is a gourmet chef, so we usually just shop at the several fish shops that are supplied by local boats that come in to sell their catch, and cook it up fresh every day. Fish is expensive, too, but it has remained within reason for the last couple of years. Even Lobster meat came down from a high of $70 per pound (!!!!) to a still-ridiculous $55.

Even last year fruit and veggies danced all over the place. Fresh corn was anywhere between 4 for a dollar to a dollar each. Fruit from California was insane, but we expect that by now. We’ll probably stock up again at the farmers market in downtown Boston, since $75 spent there will get you about $250 worth of fruit and veggies at Cape prices.

In KS here. The local news said the expected wheat harvest will be the smallest since 1970

the fuel prices will effect everything........Trucks, trains, ships, airlines will be hit hard.......