I am begging the indulgence of the site owner to write about something that is near and dear to my heart: hunger relief, and helping the deserving poor with necessities.

We all like to rail away at welfare, as well as the program formerly known as food stamps, and all of the tax payer funded public assistance programs that truly do generate quite a bit of waste. Those programs really should be better monitored and controlled, and with modern inventory systems in grocery stores, this really is possible even if it is not done as thoroughly as it could be.

But, that does not change the fact that there really are people out there who are in need of assistance to make ends meet every month. By and large, the demographic group that takes advantage of not just public assistance for food purchases, but food pantries on the front lines is actually senior citizens on fixed incomes, many of whom are widows whose husbands’ pensions died with them.

Strange as it may sound to those of us who are well versed in the welfare queen stereotype, the truth is a bit more harsh. There are far fewer of them than the urban legends say there are.

Yes, there are people down on their luck, and women with children whose father(s) walked away, but there are still the elderly and the truly disabled who really depend on the hunger relief system. They do need to be cared for, and thanks to generous Americans that does happen in spades around the holidays.

One of the stops on my personal journey was working in a local food bank. What I learned when I was there was that food stamps are just for that: food. Arguing about what food is is permissible to purchase with funds from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP is not the point here. What is is that many other household items are needed for civilized living, even for people in need. One of the items that was like gold to people in need is laundry detergent. The food bank where I worked once got a whole semi full of laundry detergent, and it had to be rationed, it was so coveted. Paper products were popular, as are consumable personal items.

All of it is needed on the front lines for people in need.

The other thing I learned about federal assistance for food is how few dollars are actually available per person. $194 a month for a single man or woman is the maximum one can receive in benefits at this time. That barely covers the basics when it comes to food – and that’s if you know what you’re doing in a kitchen. The food pantries make up the gap. (See the USDA’s page on SNAP eligibility here.)

Why I write today about this is that many church groups, and other organizations collect both giving baskets and canned goods at this time of the year to help the poor. The program my family participates in actually provides a list of what is needed and provides the box for it (and a big bag of laundry detergent pods), but for those who don’t have that, and who are just collecting or buying a few things for the local food pantry, what is needed to keep the people in need healthy is nutrient dense foods:

Hearty soups and stews, including chili

Canned meat and tuna

Canned vegetables

Canned fruit in its own juice

When taking items to a pantry, be sure they are unopened. Please, try to limit starches. This also goes for frozen food. Opened food, homegrown food, and prepared food may be taken at the door of the organization, but the food pantry by law cannot distribute it.

Across the nation, fresh foods are also made available to the poor thanks to the grocery industry, but this is limited. After all, the grocers still have to make a profit. What they do is pull meat on the sell by date and freeze it, and send produce that is still fresh, but might not quite look it to food banks equipped with commercial refrigeration. So long as it is consumed quickly, fresh foods do not go to waste.

Other items that are helpful, of course, are those personal items listed above. Remember, some of the people in need may well be looking for a job, and being hygienic will go a long way to getting the able bodied off the dole.

Thanks for reading and letting me bend some ears. It takes the entire system to keep the American poor fed, believe it or not.

A quick note on an organization called “Feeding America.” Feeding America is corporate America’s food bank system. The vast majority of cities in the country have just this one food bank to distribute donations from the corporate level. That was done very much on purpose. The “food producers” all prefer to deal with a single organization rather than an organic mish mosh of food banks to supply the pantries. QTreepers can guess why. How it works is the front line pantries belong to the food bank, and pay a membership fee for the donations from corporate America. (My hometown is one of the only cities in the nation to have two food banks.)

Giving, of course, is a deeply personal thing. What any of us gives to this cause is worthy. The thing is, the healthier we can keep the population in need, the less aid they will need in the long run. And that saves everyone money in the end.

Hey y’all!

RSBN Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Waiv97AJzQ0&feature=youtu.be

FOX 10, Phoenix Live Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzxhd9Pwx40

Golden State Times Link:

The Do’s and Don’ts of attending a MAGA Rally in Tupelo, MS, as explained by Secret Service.

Welcome to MY STATE!!! This will be the President’s second trip to Tupelo! He’s here to rally for our big Governor’s Race and state-wide seats. Mississippi is a deep red state, and chances are Tate Reeves will be our new Governor (He’s running against Jim Hood, the famous trial lawyer who led the landmark Tobacco case). Personally, I find Reeves kind of squishy. He’s known to be incredible competent and powerful in the state, but man-o-man is he boring. He’s no Donald Trump, but then, who is? Reeves can’t drive turnout, obviously, and Jim Hood oozes charisma, thus the reason for Trump’s visit = drive the turnout. And in the end, we dance with the guy who brought us. This is Tate Reeves, you will certainly see him this evening:

Mississippi is legendary for powerful politicians. Haley Barbour was former Governor and now runs one of the most powerful lobbying firms in DC. Thad Cochran, the powerful Senate Chair of Ways and Means, ran against Chris McDaniel (Tea Party) in 2014. Recall that race was particularly brutal and opened many eyes to the ways of the RINO in DC. In the 90’s, Senator Trent Lott was Majority Leader of the Senate. Before Lott, Senator John C. Stennis, a Dem/Dixiecrat, was also President Pro-tempore of the Senate and and served for 41yrs. Our Space Center on the Coast is named for him. Every one of those men has been in our house, at least once. In Mississippi, politics is a preferred pastime. Of course, that was long after Jefferson Davis, President, and the Head of the Confederacy being located in Mississippi.

But enough about politics!!! We’re so happy you are here, we have to show you around our state. Let’s get you oriented, because many of you are new to our state. This thread does get a little bit long, because I HAD SO MUCH TO TELL. If you want to, just skip to the rally thread and we won’t mind a bit!

Mississippi is 340 miles long and 170 miles wide. It takes me about 5 hours to travel from just south of Memphis, TN, to New Orleans. A total of 48,430 sq miles of natural resources, a population just under 3 million people with a median income of $43,529, as of 2016, dead last in the union. GDP runs a little over 95 Billion, 37th in the country. (Wiki is the source for basic stats)

Mississippi includes everything from the south, which is really just a big suburb of New Orleans or Mobile. It’s only about a 100 mile shoreline on the Gulf, so the coastal towns tend to blend together. On the western border is the Mighty Mississippi River offering the birthplace of the blues to plantation after plantation and miles of farmland and hunting. The east is where we find vast forests, to the north which is more characterized by the industry of Memphis. The food is fabulous, people are friendly, and as long as you understand the education dynamic within the state, it’s a perfect place to raise children or retire.

Race Demographics

Can’t mention the state name without discussing “racism”, and wow, do we have a chip on our shoulder about the subject. It was a label that stuck.

Once you understand the racial makeup of Mississippi, everything else starts to make sense. Our GDP, education, culture, the food and music, everything is influenced by race. Mississippi is different because our black population is so high as a percentage of total population. I have a hard time explaining this to visitors because they go by their own experience of their home. In fact, 37.9% of our state are black citizens, highest in the country. Therefore, if anyone wanted to truly study/solve anything to do with race, the state of Mississippi would be a perfect incubator for any social experiment or a new proposed idea…… if “they” wanted to really fix the problem….. or if there really was a problem?

Little Bit of History

Before the Civil War broke out, the colonies (new states) on the eastern seaboard were connected to the new LA Purchase (1803) territory by the land of what is now the states of Tennessee and Kentucky. The land which was MS and AL, was inhabited by Indians (Chickasaw/Choctaw in the south which beget the Trail of Tears) and Tecumseh (+others) in the upper midwest (IN, IL, MI, Minnesota which beget the war of 1812) when the Brits sided with Tecumseh. These lands did not belong to the USA…yet.

When the Civil War broke out, Mississippi was 55% black. The wealthiest cities in our fledgling country at the time were New Bedford, Massachusetts (whaling and industry), and Natchez, MS (cotton and foreign +domestic trade). The south, via New Orleans was more influenced/loyal/trading partners to the French (Lafayette, Barataria, Acadians, 1812 war with England) and the north, particularly Boston, was more loyal the the English (Puritans, etc.), but the USA declared war on England, conscription of soldiers, to capture the midwest (remember Tecumseh?) In other words, they didn’t really like each other BEFORE the Civil War, particularly when it came to trade, culture, and most of all …….. money.

The Civil War was personal to the south, fought in our front yard. As a kid, I grew up in the north and we learned very little about the Civil War. In the south, we talk about great-granddaddy…. who fought and died…… around the corner. My town was burned by Grant’s soldiers on his way to Vicksburg, save one home across from the firehouse, which had a Mason’s symbol above the door. Our state is one big battlefield and the study of military history is a pursued past time. Probably why Mississippi citizens of all races and backgrounds will NEVER give up their guns.

At the beginning of the war, only 3% of the population owned “slaves”. At the end of the war, 2/3 of the farmland in “the Delta” was owned by blacks, but falling cotton prices caused many farms to be lost. During reconstruction, many blacks held local office, until Governor Vardaman was elected. Vardaman began the red shirts and black voter suppression in the 1890’s.

Remember the PA judge who finally died and lifted the voter suppression penalty on the south, just a couple of years ago? By 1900, the state was still majority black population but the boll weevil hit the cotton crop. Then came the great flood of 1927, followed by the Great Depression, and the migration to Chicago and Detroit began. “When the Levee Breaks” was a song originally by Memphis Minnie, about the Great Flood of ’27.

Today, Mississippi, demographically, is 37% black, 59% white, and almost no Hispanics or Native Americans. We are a black and white state. In other states, like NY (14.4% black), Illinois (14.1), MA (about 8%), California (only 6.5%) or Vermont (1%), people think of “blacks” living in a community, which is far away from “them”. If you notice, there aren’t too many black people in Joliet, Westchester, or Palo Alto. I had a liberal girlfriend in upstate NY who confessed she had never MET a black person, but of course, she “knew all about it”. Note it was “it” and not “them”. Weird.

It’s not like that here. There are no places where “black people” do not exist. They represent almost 40% of our population! Our communities are mixed all up and down the state. Our families have known each other’s families for generations. We cheer for each other’s kids during high school sports and chat in the grocery store. Our kids go to school together. AND when we have hurricanes, tornadoes or ice storms, we figure it out……. together. When I travel to other states, I often say, “Where are all the black people?”, because to me, coming from here, it’s a noticeable absence. Even when I travel to other southern states, LA and AL (about 26%), it’s odd, because statewide, the communities are more disparate. If I go home to Iowa, to visit extended family…. there are almost no black people at all….., anywhere…. and the food is bland.

As a result of the demographics in Mississippi, our cultures mix. It’s how the Blues was born in Clarksdale, MS. It’s how Elvis came to prominence and American Rock and Roll changed the world. It’s how the world was blessed with “comfort food”. Dear Lord, the food is extraordinary. I also believe I could make a legal case on behalf of black grandmothers. They should interrogate all witnesses for the FBI – we would be better off as a nation. As a subset of humanity, elder black women are the most pragmatic people on the planet and can sniff out a lie faster than a good dream disappears in the morning. I have trembled in the face of their wrath and been blessed to call them friends. More than any other demo, elder black women represent the moral fiber, the core, of the state. THEY are responsible for the Steel Magnolias, the strong southern women and well behaved men. And we WILL go to church on Sunday! 83% of the state identifies as Christian.

Our race demographics are also why our state was targeted in the 1960’s. Our black population is so high, if the seeds of discord could be sown here, the animosity would travel like a dandelion on the wind.

My grandparents moved south from Iowa in 1961. Grandpa was part of a three man team who opened the largest factory in town. He wanted to hire black workers (cuz they were 40% of the people who lived here – made sense) and met with opposition from the town leaders. Grandpa wasn’t the kind of guy to back down. It didn’t go well. The guy who used to own my house was a town leader, powerful man, Senators, Cattlemen and the St. Louis FED used to meet at our house…. all the time. He tangled with Grandpa quite often.

The Integration of Ole Miss – Fascinating Story of Meddling by Politicians

By 1962, James Meredith decided to enroll at Ole Miss. Whether he decided himself or it was planned, we will never know. Meredith was an air force veteran, good scores at another college. If he had been white, he would have been a perfect candidate for Ole Miss… but Ole Miss was segregated at the time (as were most other schools all over the country). The Kennedy Administration decided to make their stand in Mississippi and made it a political stunt when it didn’t need to be. Here, it was seen as the 100yr replay of Massachusetts trying to tell Mississippi what to do. Civil War all over again.

Kennedy deployed 500 Marshals and a Combat Battalion out of Ft Campbell to accompany Meredith to registration, when the Governor already agreed to do it. In fact, Meredith had already moved into his dorm! The press was coordinated perfectly (one French journalist died in the riots-bullet to the back – how do you get French press all the way to Ole Miss without coordination). Locals were alarmed by the massive show of force, TROOPS, Army on our own land! People were mortified and James Meredith immediately became an incidental issue. Several hundred were injured in the riots/protests which ensued…. but the media played it perfectly, all about RACE.

Within 24 hours of the television coverage, the entire world thought everyone in the state of Mississippi was a racist. The false label stuck.

The story is fascinating (I have girlfriends who were students there at the time and Ole Miss is my Alma Mater) and a perfect lesson in how politics created a problem where there was no problem. Kennedy Admin and Governor Barnett’s Admin agreed on a discreet enrollment. Meredith was resting comfortably in his dorm room when Kennedy brought troops onto the campus. Here it is, directly from LEFT-LEANING Wikipedia:

In accordance with Barnett and Kennedy’s plan, on Sunday evening, September 30, the day before the anticipated showdown, Meredith was flown to Oxford. He was quietly escorted by Mississippi Highway Patrol as he moved into a dorm room.

The federal marshals assembled on campus, supported by the 70th Army Engineer Combat Battalion from Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Responding to the federal presence, a crowd of a thousand, mostly students–led by Edwin Walker–quickly crowded onto campus…… (Walker was an agitator, not from Mississippi, and Bobby Kennedy had him arrested and sent to a mental institution for 90 days – he was let go after 5 days, as soon as the media left town.)

As the scene grew more out of control, the highway patrol initially helped hold off the crowds but, despite Barnett’s renewed commitment, those police were withdrawn by State Senator George Yarbrough starting at about 7:25 p.m. local time.^[7][8] The student demonstration, joined by an increasing number of other agitators, started to break out into a full riot on the Oxford campus. (Betrayed by Kennedy Admin) At 7:30 p.m., Barnett announced on radio that Meredith had been brought to Mississippi by force. After signing his enrollment, Barnett said to the Federal troops:

“Gentlemen, you are trampling on the sovereignty of this great state and depriving it of every vestige of honor and respect as a member of the United States. You are destroying the Constitution of the United States. May God have mercy on your souls.^[5] ” (So, locals were primarily protesting what appeared to be an invasion by the US government AND the admission of Meredith, but portrayed as racist on national television and in print media)

The crowd eventually swelled to about three thousand. As its behavior turned increasingly violent, including the death of a journalist, the marshals ran out of tear gas defending the officials in the Lyceum. President Kennedy reluctantly decided to call in reinforcements in the middle of the night under the command of Brigadier General Charles Billingslea, Commanding general, 2nd Infantry Division. He ordered in U.S. Army military police from the 503rd and 716th Military Police Battalions, which had previously been readied for deployment under cover of the nuclear war Exercise Spade Fork, plus the U.S. Border Patrol and the federalized Mississippi National Guard. U.S. Navy medical personnel (physicians and hospital corpsmen) attached to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Millington, Tennessee, were also sent to the university.

Before they arrived, white rioters roaming the campus discovered Meredith was in Baxter Hall and started to assault it. Early in the morning, as Gen. Billingslea’s party entered the university gate, a white mob attacked his staff car and set it on fire. Billingslea, the Deputy Commanding General John Corley, and aide, Capt Harold Lyon, were trapped inside the burning car, but they forced the door open, then crawled 200 yards under gunfire from the mob to the University Lyceum Building (The same Lyceum which was occupied by Grant’s Army and used as a Union Hospital which treated both Union and Confederate soldiers wounded in the battle of Shiloh – only reason Ole Miss wasn’t burned. The same Lyceum where I registered for classes). The army did not return this fire.

To keep control, Gen Billingslea had established a series of escalating secret code words for issuing ammunition down to the platoons, a second one for issuing it to squads, and the third one for loading, none of which could take place without the General confirming the secret codes.

By the end, one-third of the US Marshals, a total of 166 men, were injured in the melee, and 40 soldiers and National Guardsmen were wounded.^[9][6]

Finally, on October 1, 1962, Meredith became the first African-American student to be enrolled at the University of Mississippi,^[13] and attended his first class, in American History.^[1] Meredith graduated from the university on August 18, 1963 with a degree in political science.^[14] At that time, there were still hundreds of troops guarding him 24 hours a day although, in order to appease the local sensitivities, 4,000 Black soldiers were removed from the Federal troops under Robert Kennedy’s secret orders.^[15][6] (In other words, caused further segregation…. smh)

Governor Barnett was fined $10,000 and sentenced to jail for contempt. The charges were later dismissed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.^[16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Miss_riot_of_1962

It all happened about 30 minutes from here. It lit the flame. From that moment on, Mississippi became the staged battleground for Civil Rights. 1964 made worse.

Education:

Schools in Mississippi are horrible, often ranked at or near the bottom of all states, or so I thought, but statistics are sneaky things. The perception of lack of good schools presented a problem in recruiting executives/skilled labor/corporate headquarters from other parts of the country. Education became my primary interest. Good schools lead to more opportunity, better employees, attract more business, leads to stronger communities, and better families. For YEARS, I battled/advocated /screamed loudly to improve the results of students who were educated in MS. It wasn’t until my son was in high school that I figured out what the real problem was.

Because of one of my son’s extracurriculars, I ended up as a Scholarship Chair for thousands of the region’s highest performing students, who were being recruited by top colleges. Along with resumes, SAT/ACT scores were key. I started investigating, poking around, running numbers, comparing studies, and the results of kids across states and even down to various zip codes. Couldn’t believe what I was finding, but we can’t argue with hard data.

I learned the “average” black student scored an 18 on the ACT, Hispanic about a 20, white student about a 22.4, and an Asian student about a 23.6-24. Of course, there were outliers who performed incredibly well despite all kinds of odds. I could, however, compare an “average” black student in Palo Alto, Lake Forest, Wellesley (rich zip codes) to an average black student in rural Mississippi (poor zip code), and the scores were the same, no discernible difference. Same with Hispanics/Whites/Asians. There could be a hundred reasons for the discrepancy among races, but clearly, $$’s spent per pupil was NOT a reason. Flabbergasted. I cross checked dozens, and then hundreds, of different zip codes, same results. I ran into zip codes which spent 3X’s the amount per pupil, no difference in ACT scores.

Therefore, since our state had a higher demo of black students (almost 40%), the lower test scores were bringing down the average of the state, but easily addressed, right? Politically, if we extrapolated the problem across the region of high demo black population states, it explains the stigma of the “dumb southerner”, which hastens division of Americans, and becomes Exhibit A on “How to Lie With Statistics”. Massive legal/illegal immigration into CA could explain the downturn in numbers for California.

It’s not possible to explain “why” there is a difference among races for test scores (above my paygrade – but if lil’ ole me found it, then SURELY someone else has noticed before me). Yet, common sense tells us, if we worked on ACT prep classes with black students we could increase overall averages, improve the state’s reputation for education, recruit more execs, more biz, and increase prosperity. If we had success with one subset for ACT, even in a single zip code, we could duplicate results across the state, right? And then work down across grade levels, right? I gave it to Governors, Senators, Congressmen, even local Superintendents. No one wanted to touch it….. because they would be accused of being racist if they admitted “average” differences in test scores. Thus, the black community suffers…. and we’re all worse off…. which is actually “racist”.

My own school Superintendent alluded to the fact that he already knew what I was telling him…… but the idea was poison to him. Sticking his head in the sand was more politically convenient. Political correctness is therefore racist, and in this case harms all our of fellow citizens. “Systemic Racism” = There it is, a real definition, and it would be so easy to turn around.

It’s a shame. If we can’t talk about a problem, we can’t fix the problem.

Industry

Mississippi is a right-to-work state and Nissan and Toyota have enormous plants in the state. We also have shipyards and many military bases here. Mississippi citizens are the highest percentage of those in the military.

With President Trump in office, the shipyards are so busy, the closest Junior College is running welding tech, structural welding, welding info systems, ANYTHING welding classes 3 shifts a day, and another one on weekends, to train welders. It’s amazing.

Of course, Mississippi will always be the land of beautiful women (more Miss Americas than any other state). Ole Miss has a saying….., as opposed to a football team, “We red-shirt Miss Americas”.

Tailgating is an art-form in our state and the men and women dress to impress. The town of Oxford, only has about 30K residents, but on Football Weekends, it swells to about 180-250K. People bring pool tables, satellite dishes, and all their friends.

So, plan to stay for a while. You’re always welcome in Mississippi.

Now, onto the rally thread!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwT6jeW-Bvk

WELCOME to the Daily Thread!!

Today is ALL Saints Day in New Orleans. The town was settled by the French/Spanish and is dominated by rowdy Catholics to this day. Therefore, we always had the day after Halloween off of school and work. Everyone heads to the cemetery with flowers for the dead, clean up the graves, and of course, food and liquor is required. Those Catholics, I tell ya’, they have the holidays worked out well! My friends allowed me to be a pseudo Catholic for the day…… Presbyterians don’t get holidays.

We’re leaving Rocktober October and we landed in ACTION November!! Can’t wait to see what happens. We’re ready for some Batman Super-Power!

You can say what you want, comment on what other people said, and so on.

Free Speech is practiced here. ENJOY IT. Use it or lose it.

Keep it SOMEWHAT civil. They tried to FORCE fake Orwellian civility on us. In response, we CHOOSE true civility to defend our precious FREEDOM from THEM.

Our rules began with the civility of the Old Treehouse, later to become the Wolverinian Empire, and one might say that we have RESTORED THE OLD REPUBLIC – the early high-interaction model of the Treehouse – except of course that Q discussion is not only allowed but encouraged, and speech is considerably freer in other ways. Please feel free to argue and disagree with the board owner, as nicely as possible.

Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here in the January 1st open thread. Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven. Wolfie would be upset.

SPEAK THE FIVE WORDS BOLDLY TO OUR PRESIDENT!

“I AM PRAYING FOR YOU!“

Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights.
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

In honor of tonight’s rally in Tupelo, MS, I’ll leave you with the King, in Tupelo. It’s Elvis Presley live from the Mississippi/Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, September 29, 1956. LOOK at all the people. Wow, that’s a Donald Trump size crowd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7gpwvqJcLA

And if that doesn’t work for you, this might.