There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
The effort to shape public opinion on the political left has crossed from spin into something far more reckless.
On the floor of the United States Senate, Illinois Democrat Senator Dick Durbin displayed an AI-generated image that he claimed depicted the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti. The image was not authentic, contained obvious visual flaws, and misrepresented key facts about the agencies involved. Yet it was presented as evidence in a high-profile speech meant to inflame emotion and harden opinion.
This was not a minor misstatement or an honest error. It was a calculated use of fabricated imagery to frame a political argument, knowing that most viewers would never question what they were shown.
That same instinct to manage perception rather than present reality showed when CNN rigged a “town hall” meeting. A recent Minnesota town hall promoted as a public forum was anything but organic. Critics documented how CNN carefully recruited participants and questioners to tilt the conversation in one ideological direction, heavily favoring left-leaning activists and donors.
Town halls are supposed to reflect the voice of a community. When they are stage-managed to produce a preferred outcome, they become political theater masquerading as journalism. This kind of manipulation deepens public distrust and reinforces the belief that major media organizations are no longer committed to fairness, balance, or transparency.
When the fix is in before the first question is asked, the audience isn’t being informed — it’s being guided.
Taken together, these incidents point to a broader pattern. When facts threaten the narrative, the narrative takes precedence.
Artificial images, curated audiences, selective framing — these are tools of persuasion, not truth-seeking. The danger isn’t simply that falsehoods are told. It’s that repetition normalizes them. Over time, people stop asking whether something is accurate and start asking whether it advances their side. That erosion of shared reality is how societies lose the ability to reason together.
Once truth becomes optional, outrage becomes currency, and deception becomes strategy.
The long-term cost is measured not just in bad policy but in a public that no longer trusts institutions meant to serve it.
Proverbs 14:25 says, “A true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies.”
Deception always carries consequences, even when it feels politically expedient. It corrodes credibility, poisons civic discourse, and leaves people vulnerable to manipulation.
Once these narratives are created, an entire media machine, including social media, news networks, wire services, and others jump in and promote the lie using just enough truth to make the lie believable. And while some will eventually see through the tactics, many won’t.
Trouble is, a huge number of people lack discernment and believe these lies, which is, say it with me… Stupidocrisy.
The folks at Fox News Channel have decided to spend day after day covering the alleged abduction of Nancie Guthrie, the mother of anti-Trump media personality Savannah Guthrie, and its constant, tiresome coverage of the subject, which isn’t really national news, has angered and alienated a notable portion of the Fox News viewership base, which got very annoyed online over the coverage FNC is devoting to the family life of an anti-Trump personality.
The online eruption from MAGA over what Fox News Channel has been up to came thanks to a tweet from FNC host Jesse Watters on February 5. Posting a clip from his show in which he was commenting yet again on the alleged abduction of Nancie Guthrie, the mother of anti-Trump media personality Savannah Guthrie.
Captioning the video with a summary of the situation on X in an utterly absurd post, Watters said, “ BREAKING: The alleged kidnapping case grows MORE CONFUSING by the hour There is STILL NO proof of life Blood trails from the house to the driveway Security cameras were DISABLED ”
Continuing with more brain rot commentary on the alleged abduction, Watters then said, “If this was about money… You don’t go to TMZ You don’t make it NATIONAL Investigators are now focused on proof of life Another deadline is approaching Nothing adds up. Praying she’s alive ”
Commenters were generally annoyed with the wall to wall covereage in which Fox News has engaged during this whole incident. One commenter on Watters’s post, for example, wrote, “Fox News is unwatchable the past 2 days, wall to wall coverage about this. Meanwhile, normal citizens go missing daily with no coverage, elites, but not others, got it. ”
Similarly, another commenter noted that this situation is local news at best, not something for FNC and Watters and Fox News to spend all day, every day on. That commenter said, “Can’t believe Jesse has wasted a full show yesterday on this and most of today. If this was not tied to a TV personality, it would barely make the local news. It’s insane how much ‘national’ time is spent on this ‘local’ issue.”
Still another said, making much the same point about how absurd the whole spectacle has gotten with FNC covering it constantly, “It’s like there is nothing else to report on. I think last night was 3 solid hours of just this! Why?!!! It’s not of national interest. It’s like Baby in the Well 5.0 Give it a rest!”
And yet another commenter who chimed in noted that the constant coverage Fox News was devoting to a subject that has no national importance and, in any case, involved a notoriously anti-Trump media hack about whom the supposedly conservative press shouldn’t really care, saying, “Why is @FoxNews spending 24/7 on this topic for a family that hates Trump, lies about him and bashes him every day. Is Trump gonna send the head of the FBI to search for victims of regular people? Would CNN do this if this was in the other side? Nope.”
Agreeing with that perspective, a commenter on the comment said that even CNN is less bad right now that Fox News, which is saying alot, writing, “I actually switched to CNN to see if they were doing 24/7 coverage and they were reporting news. It hurt to watch CNN, but it was a needed break from ridiculous Fox News.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is facing a wave of drive-by taunts at the governor’s mansion in St. Paul, with motorists slowing down to shout “retard.”
The comments echo President Donald Trump’s recent jab, calling him “seriously retarded” in a post on Truth Social on Thanksgiving.
The trend really kicked off after Walz whined during a press conference earlier this month, calling Trump’s use of the word “shameful” and claiming that people were driving by his house and shouting it.
“This creates danger,” Walz told reporters on December 5. “And I’ll tell you what. In my time on this, I’d never seen this before: People driving by my house and using the R-word in front of people.”
“This is shameful. And I have yet to see an elected official, a Republican elected official say, ‘You’re right. That’s shameful. He should not say it,” Walz continued. “So look, I’m worried. We know how these things go. They start with taunts, they turn to violence, so deeply concerned.”
A viral video capturing one of these moments shows a black Mercedes SUV cruising past the snow-covered Governor’s Mansion on a sunny winter day.
The driver appears to yell toward the gated property before speeding off. While audio is muffled in circulated clips, the context and reports confirm they shouted “retard.”
The footage, first shared widely on X, has racked up hundreds of thousands of views and sparked heated debates.
An account called “American Papa Bear” posted the clip on X, writing, “TIM WALZ IS NOT SAFE EVEN ON CHRISTMAS!”
“More Patriotic Americans record themselves yelling r*tard outside of the Minnesota home of Tim Walz!” the post added. “I love this energy!!
TIM WALZ IS NOT SAFE EVEN ON CHRISTMAS!
More Patriotic Americans record themselves yelling r*tard outside of the Minnesota home of Tim Walz!
“Everyone really needs to take a breath and stop being awful, stop rewarding awfulness, and stop promoting awfulness with your algorithms,” Tapper complained. “Happy & fulfilled & confident people don’t spend time doing any of this.”
This isn’t the first time Walz has faced public backlash. His tenure has been marred by controversies, including billions in alleged fraud tied to Somali-linked programs and criticism over his COVID policies.
The drive-by heckling is a sure sign of frustration in Minnesota.
The $30 million venture capital firm run by Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, has quietly removed the names and bios of its top officers and advisors from its website.
This comes as the Minnesota Democrat faces intensifying questions about her family’s explosive wealth surge, from near bankruptcy to millions, amid one of the largest welfare fraud scandals in U.S. history, centered in her own district.
According to a bombshell report from the New York Post, Rose Lake Capital, founded by Mynett in 2022, scrubbed the details of nine key figures between September and October 2025.
The list included high-profile Democrats like former Obama Ambassador to Bahrain Adam Ereli, ex-Senator and Obama Ambassador to China Max Baucus, DNC Finance Chair associate Alex Hoffman, former DNC treasurer William Derrough, and Keith Mestrich, the ex-CEO of Amalgamated Bank, which he once called “the institutional bank of the Democratic Party.”
None of these individuals has been charged with any fraud. However, the timing coincides with federal prosecutors announcing charges against eight more suspects in the massive Minnesota welfare scam, six of whom are of Somali descent.
Omar, a prominent member of the far-left “Squad,” entered Congress in 2019 with a net worth between negative $25,000 and negative $65,000, burdened by student loans and car debt with no assets to her name.
Fast-forward to 2024, and her financial disclosures show assets ballooning to between $6 million and $30 million.
How did this happen so quickly, and what role, if any, do connections to the $9 billion Minnesota welfare fraud play?
The scandal revolves around the theft of billions from government-funded children’s meal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly 90 people have been charged so far, including at least three with direct ties to Omar, though she herself has not been implicated or charged.
Fraudsters allegedly claimed millions of “phantom” meals that were never served, pocketing subsidies meant for hungry kids.
One key figure, Salim Ahmed Said, co-owner of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, was convicted in August of stealing over $12 million by fabricating 3.9 million meals.
Said’s restaurant hosted Omar’s 2018 victory party, and a resurfaced 2020 video shows Omar praising the program there, saying in Somali, “Every day Safari provides 2,300 meals to children and their families,” while handing out food trays.
I posted this video earlier …
Do you all want to know the kicker to this video?
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced on April 20, 2023 H.R. 2777 the "School Meals During School Closures Act.
She defrauded 250 Million from "The feeding our future Act." The same act she introduced. pic.twitter.com/zErLwE7d3y
Another convicted fraudster, Guhaad Hashi Said, worked on Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaigns and pleaded guilty in August to running a fake food site that claimed 5,000 daily meals, netting $3.2 million in ill-gotten gains.
Omar’s campaign received $7,400 in donations from at least three now-convicted individuals, which she claims were returned after the scandal broke.
Omar pushed the MEALS Act in Congress in 2020, which critics argue loosened oversight on these programs, paving the way for the fraud. When asked last week if she regretted the legislation, Omar told a reporter, “Absolutely not, it did help feed kids.”
Mynett’s firm, Rose Lake Capital, reported assets under management of $60 billion despite operating out of a WeWork office in Washington, D.C.
In 2023, it was valued at less than $1,000 in Omar’s disclosures, but by the next year, it jumped to between $5 million and $25 million. The firm boasts “deep global networks built from on-the-ground work in more than 80 countries,” but details are scarce.
Adding to the intrigue, Mynett’s other venture, a California winery called eStCru, LLC (formerly estCru), faced its own fraud allegations.
In October 2023, an investor sued Mynett for allegedly swindling $900,000 by misrepresenting the business.
“The fraud case involved a wine investor suing Mynett in Oct. 2023, accusing him of swindling him of $900,000 as he ‘fraudulently misrepresented … that estCru, LLC was a legitimate company.’ Mynett claimed he simply struggled to build a business during the pandemic,” The Post reports.
The case settled out of court.
The winery, which once sold gimmicky wines like “Blockchain” and “The Devil’s Lie,” saw its value skyrocket from $15,000-$50,000 in 2022 to between one and five million in 2024, a staggering 9,900% increase.
Today, it appears defunct. No wine sales, a broken website, a disconnected phone, and no social media activity since 2023.
“In total, Mynett has received a whopping $878,930.65 from Omar’s campaign since he began working for her in 2018, raising eyebrows among watchdogs and political law experts who say the practice is rife with cronyism,” The Post wrote in a 2020 report on the matter.
Paul Kamenar, counsel for the National Legal and Policy Center, didn’t mince words, telling the New York Post this week, “There’s a lot of strange things going on… She was basically broke when she came into office, and now she’s worth perhaps up to $30 million…she needs to come clean on these assets.”
In September, President Donald Trump asked about Omar’s ties to the fraud scam, writing on Truth Social, “Does Ilhan Omar know these people? Are they from her wonderfully managed Home Country of Somalia?”
Omar dismissed the wealth reports as “ridiculous” and “categorically false” earlier this year. Her office declined comment, citing a holiday closure until January 5.
Mynett did not respond to inquiries from The Post, and his businesses’ contact info is non-functional.
You know a Democrat is in serious trouble when they get negative coverage by a reliably left wing outlet like the Washington Post.
In the case of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, it wasn’t just a reporter or columnist calling out his budget proposal, it was the Editorial Board.
It seems they are concerned about the unfunded liabilities in the city’s pension programs. Johnson wants to create new taxes and raise some existing ones. The Washington Post sees this for what it is – a financial band-aid that won’t stop the bleeding.
Chicago has long-term structural problems with its finances, thanks in large part to wildly underfunded pensions. The country’s third-largest city has a history of using short-term gimmicks to paper over its problems, such as a notorious 2008 deal that sold off 75 years of future parking meter revenue for $1.15 billion, which was quickly spent. That deal is still hurting finances today, which should have taught local politicians that there is no substitute for serious fiscal reform. Alas, apparently not.
The city’s net operating budget increased almost 40 percent between 2019 and 2025, “subsidized in large part by temporary federal pandemic funding that kept the City financially afloat,” according to Grant McClintock of the Civic Federation. “The pandemic is over, but many of the programs and personnel positions established during that time remain, and without the benefit of the federal funding that previously supported them.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) proposes to offset a $1.15 billion shortfall by taxing the businesses that anchor Chicago’s economy, borrowing and more gimmicks.
The mayor proposes to increase the tax on the lease of “personal property” like computers, vehicles and software from 11 percent to 14 percent, and to bring back the city’s “head tax,” which would result in large employers paying $33 per worker, per month.
By making it more expensive to do business or hire workers in the city, these measures threaten Chicago’s future economic growth and tax collections. These moves are especially reckless given that the Chicago Fed’s 12-month hiring outlook is the weakest it’s been since the pandemic. Gov. JB Pritzker (D) says the head tax would penalize employment.
Johnson was asked about this during a press event and rejected it, naturally. Watch:
WATCH: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson responds to a Washington Post editorial today that criticized his head tax proposal.
A Freedom Too Far? The makers of the ICEBlock app are suing the Trump administration because of the pressure to remove the app. The app is intended to prevent law enforcement from doing their jobs … and endangers ICE personnel. When does the “freedom of the press” or “free speech” fall outside legal protection? Should we be required to allow all speech even if it endangers lives and violates laws? Is this really the road we want to follow?
A Question Too Far? Now here’s an interesting story. The FDA is probing deaths from COVID … vaccines. Over time, multiple stories have surfaced about deaths caused by the vaccine. They were typically squashed and ignored, but … not absent. It wasn’t … an accepted story. The “freedom of the press” is very limited in our day … just not always by the government.
A Question of Fraud? Trump announced a pardon for Tina Peters in Colorado. Peters is serving a nine-year sentence for trying to aid Trump in overturning the 2020 election results for fraudulent voting. It was a state sentence, and legal minds largely agree that a president can only pardon someone for federal crimes, so it’s only symbolic. However, the very real question of whether or not there was sufficient voter fraud in 2020 to skew the results will never be examined because the powers that be have manipulated public opinion against even asking the question with the completely truthful but wildly misleading statement, “There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.” (The claim is not “widespread,” but largely localized and limited to three specific swing states … but … we can’t ask anymore.)
A News Splash Some odd news gathered this week. New Zealand police recovered a stolen Fabergé egg pendant after a thief swallowed it and stole it. It took six days to … “extract” it naturally. A woman in San Francisco gave birth … in a Waymo self-driving taxi. Waymo is promising to deliver, but … that’s not what they meant, was it? And a a drone in South Carolina dropped a meal of steak and crab legs, complete with some marijuana and a couple of cartons of cigarettes … to a prison yard for a prisoner. The guards got it first. Nice try.
Your Best Source for Fake News In politics, Jasmine Crockett has hit the campaign trail to “axe for votes”. I’m afraid there might be a … language barrier brewing there. Trump has announced a $12 billion farmers aid package (actual story) to help them deal with the growing economy. Finally, with Christmas fast approaching, the Pope is urging Jesus and Satan to put aside their differences in the name of peace. “Can’t we all just get along?” (As a bonus, you might look at the Bee’s 13 Things Safer to Give Your Kids Than A Smarphone story in view of the recent concerns over kids and smartphones.)
The Big State is always a big problem. The Total State has proven to be perhaps the greatest threat there is to individual freedom, economic progress, and civil rights in general. Waste, fraud, corruption and inefficiency characterise the Deep State and bloated bureaucracy. That is why conservatives of all stripes have always championed small government, limited government, and less government.
Volumes penned about this from the past century or so include these 20 important works (presented in order of publication):
The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc (1912)
The Revolt of the Masses by José Ortega y Gasset (1932)
Our Enemy, the State by Albert Jay Nock (1935)
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek (1944)
Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War by Ludwig von Mises (1944)
Bureaucracy by Ludwig von Mises (1956)
The American Cause by Russell Kirk (1957)
The Constitution of Liberty by Friedrich Hayek (1960)
In Defense of Freedom: A Conservative Credo by Frank Meyer (1962)
For a New Liberty: A Libertarian Manifesto by Murray Rothbard (1973)
Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick (1974)
The Politicization of Society edited by Kenneth Templeton (1979)
Free To Choose by Milton and Rose Friedman (1980)
Freedom, Justice and the State by Ronald Nash (1980)
In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government by Charles Murray (1988)
Limited Government: A Positive Agenda by John Gray (1989)
Back on the Road to Serfdom: The Resurgence of Statism edited by Thomas Woods (2011)
Plunder and Deceit: Big Government’s Exploitation of Young People and the Future by Mark Levin (2016)
Live Free or Die: America (and the World) on the Brink by Sean Hannity (2020)
On Power by Mark Levin (2025)
On Power by Levin, Mark R. (Author)
Some of these titles might lead one to believe that I am just highlighting works by libertarians, if not anarchists. Yes, many titles are from that quarter, but certainly not all of them. Nonetheless, they all share a healthy distrust of big government and big bureaucracy. And note: most of these titles I simply culled from my 1990 book, Modern Conservative Thought.
With all this by way of background, my main purpose in this article is to share a helpful look at the current Australian situation. The Menzies Research Centre, based in Canberra, is one public policy think tank that has done a lot of work in this area. Its Executive Director, David Hughes, has just sent out an informative – and worrying – newsletter. It begins as follows:
The hefty travel bill accumulated by Australia’s Sports Minister has attracted the attention it deserved this week. But should we be surprised? There really isn’t much for a Sports Minister to do, other than fly around the country to attend sporting events.
We were already a great sporting nation before the Commonwealth Government decided in 1972 under Gough Whitlam to appoint a Minister for Sport. Prior to that, any decisions relating to “sport” that the Commonwealth had to make fell to the next most relevant Minister and portfolio. Before we had a national sports bureaucracy we had hosted an Olympics, developed our own national sporting identity and our national teams and athletes were defying the rest of the world. Bradman was averaging 99 without a Commonwealth Sport Minister to claim some of the credit.
At the time of Federation, Australia had nine Ministers with practical titles and responsibilities. This jumped to 27 under Whitlam, 30 under Hawke, and 40 under Keating. Albanese’s Ministry lists 72 different portfolio titles. We have a Tasmanian MP serving as Minister for Indigenous Health, and we have a 52 year old Minister for Youth. We have a Minister for Charities and a Minister for Pacific Islands. At times, we have also had a “Minister for the Asian Century” and a “Minister for the Centenary of Federation”. In the last term of Parliament, we had an “Assistant Minister for the Republic”, before the Prime Minister realised referendums are too hard and abolished the position.
The problem with this explosion in titles is that they all require new agencies and bureaucracies sitting behind them. And worse still, Ministers with new portfolios need to create the appearance of work — which more often involves new spending or new laws. Take our Minister for Sport. When not attending Grand Finals, she devised a $50 million grants program to help local sports groups deal with the impact of climate change.
Adding more titles, and the agencies and bureaucrats that sit behind them, creates an absurd level of complexity. This complexity not only makes it harder for citizens and businesses to navigate and interact with their government, but it also obscures reporting lines and limits accountability. It also means more taxpayer money funding jobs in Canberra. No wonder four out of every five jobs created in the past two years have been in the non-market sector.
He goes on to feature an intriguing chart on the convoluted labyrinth of “interactions between Government agencies, Ministerial portfolios and Ministers, and demonstrates how complex our Government has become.” It really is a mind-boggling chart indeed.
I have not been able to locate that chart on their website, although it may well be forthcoming soon enough. But a related article takes you to their site and offers more on our out-of-control big government behemoth here in Australia: https://www.menziesrc.org/latest-research/government-grows-growth-slows
We can be thankful that not all Australians have put up the white flag of surrender to the big government and big bureaucracy tsunami.
Germany’s cities are collapsing under a €30 billion deficit in 2025, and even mayors of the neoliberal, pro-mass migration, ‘center right’ party, the Christian Democratic Union, are finally admitting the globalist system they helped create has driven the Europe’s strongest economy straight into the wall.
The mayor of Essen, a large city in the western part of Germany, recently admitted that almost every single German city is on the brink of bankruptcy, with only a handful managing balanced budgets, BILD reported.
North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s biggest state, has just 10 solvent municipalities out of 396, and the rest of Germany, tragically, looks exactly the same.
For the first time, even once-wealthy cities are imposing total spending freezes, and the era of endless Merkel-style handouts is officially dead..
Essen itself went from expecting a tiny surplus to a €123 million black hole in a single year—proof that globalist open-border policies, combined with Germany’s exceedingly generous social welfare programs, have destroyed the nation’s finances overnight.
The main culprit? The unrelenting stream migrants, the majority of whom are welfare-dependent military-aged men. So-called ‘refugee’ housing, welfare, and integration efforts alone devour at least €50 billion a year nationwide, and that’s the official low-ball figure.
Add in exploding costs for schools, hospitals, prisons, and psychiatric wards filled with foreign nationals, and the real bill is heading toward €20 trillion if the catastrophic status-quo is maintained and borders stay open.
In Essen, over a third of primary-school kids now have a migration background and require expensive extra classes that native German children pay for.
Nationwide, 63% of welfare recipients have foreign roots despite being a minority—German workers are forced to fund their own replacement.
Berlin’s “rescue package” for cities is a sick joke: Essen gets €28 million a year, barely enough for two schools while costs skyrocket.
The globalist elite in Berlin drown cities in bureaucracy and then toss crumbs, pretending they’ve solved the disaster they created.
Hardworking Germans are now drowning in personal debt too—5.7 million are over-indebted for the first time in years as rents and energy prices explode.
The Merkel-Scholz-Merz era has turned Europe’s strongest economy into a bankrupt welfare magnet for the Third World. Everyone can see it, and the results have been utterly devastating. It’s time to admit the globalist establishment is utterly incompetent and has betrayed the German people at every turn.
Only the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has the courage and political will to close the borders, slash the welfare free-for-all, and put Germans first again. Real change will only begin with them in power.
(Worthy News) – In one of the most sweeping crackdowns on underground Christianity in recent years, Chinese authorities have formally arrested 18 leaders of the Beijing Zion Church, according to the Christian rights organization ChinaAid. The arrests finalize detentions that began in early October as part of a multi-province operation targeting unregistered Christian groups.
The detainees are being charged with “illegally using information networks,” a vague offence that carries a maximum three-year sentence and has increasingly been employed to silence clergy who refuse to place their congregations under Communist Party control, according to ChinaAid and The Epoch Times.
Nationwide Raid Beginning October 9
The crackdown began on October 9 in Beihai, Guangxi, where police launched a coordinated action across Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan. Within days, nearly 30 pastors, ministers, and congregants were detained, including prominent pastor Mingri “Ezra” Jin, founder of Zion Church and one of China’s most visible unregistered Christian leaders.
The arrests drew swift criticism from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, both calling on Beijing to release the detainees.
Under Chinese law, suspects cannot be held for more than 37 days without formal arrest. Rights groups say police rushed through formal arrest procedures to prevent international pressure from forcing their release.
“A Chilling Milestone” in China’s War on Independent Churches
ChinaAid president Dr. Bob Fu called the development “a chilling milestone in the CCP’s all-out war on Christianity.”
“These pastors and co-workers are being treated as criminals simply because they faithfully shepherded a large, legally unregistered church that refused to submit to CCP control and surveillance,” Fu said. “Their only ‘crime’ is preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide echoed the condemnation, with CEO Scott Bower stating that the detainees were “targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of their religious beliefs.”
Zion Church’s Long History of Persecution
Founded in 2007, Zion Church grew rapidly to nearly 5,000 members across 50 cities. Authorities shut down its Beijing premises in 2018 after leaders refused to install government surveillance cameras inside the sanctuary, forcing the congregation underground and online.
New regulations in China now ban all unsanctioned online preaching, effectively criminalizing Zion Church’s operations.
Wider Crackdown on House Churches
The arrests come amid a broader surge in crackdowns on unregistered churches throughout China. Open Doors reports that at least 70 Christians were detained in September alone, with dozens of house churches ceasing operations entirely under pressure.
Accusations used by authorities include “fraud,” “running an illegal business,” and “organizing unlawful meetings.” In some cases, church treasurers were accused of financial misconduct despite no complaints from within the congregation.
One Open Doors partner described the current climate: “Due to the recent crackdown, our church has come to a standstill. More than 80 groups within the house church movement have ceased meeting.”
Growing International Concern
Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the detentions, urging Beijing to release the Zion Church leaders immediately. International monitors estimate China is home to more than 96 million Christians, with the vast majority attending unregistered churches that Beijing views as a threat to Party authority.
Do you want to see a very clear sign that our standard of living has gone way down? When I was growing up, middle class and low-income Americans flocked to fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s. But now we are being told that high prices have “driven away lower-income customers” from McDonald’s, and Wendy’s is being forced to close hundreds of locations. Most of us just can’t afford it anymore. U.S. consumers are being squeezed financially to a degree that we have never seen before, and as a result most of them have very little discretionary income to spend.
I clearly remember a time when it was very common for parents to stop at McDonald’s on the way home and pick up Happy Meals for their children because they were so inexpensive.
Needless to say, that wasn’t a very healthy choice, but at least the food was dirt cheap.
But now it is being reported that “Happy Meals at McDonald’s are prohibitively expensive for some people, because there’s been so much inflation”…
McDonald’s executives say the higher costs of restaurant essentials, such as beef and salaries, have pushed food prices up and driven away lower-income customers who are already being squeezed by the rising cost of groceries, clothes, rent and child care.
With prices for everything rising, consumer companies concerned about the pressures on low-income Americans include food, automotive and airline businesses, among others, said analyst Adam Josephson. “The list goes on and on,” he said.
“Happy Meals at McDonald’s are prohibitively expensive for some people, because there’s been so much inflation,” Josephson said.
This makes me so sad.
If you are old enough, you still remember when fast food chains couldn’t open up new locations fast enough because there was so much demand.
But now the cost of living crisis is forcing Wendy’s to permanently close down hundreds of locations…
Fast food giant Wendy’s plans to close hundreds of its U.S. stores next year as part of a broader effort to revive its domestic business, which has been under pressure from slowing sales.
Interim CEO Ken Cook said during the company’s earnings call on Friday that a “mid-single-digit percentage” of its 6,011 U.S. restaurants are expected to close next year. A mid-single-digit percentage is about 4% to 6%, which means the least number of closures would be 241 stores.
America was once a nation that was absolutely teeming with inexpensive beef.
And that was a wonderful thing.
But now the size of the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to the lowest level in 75 years, and even the L.A. Times is admitting that beef prices “have skyrocketed”…
Beef prices have skyrocketed, with inventory of the U.S. cattle herd at the lowest in 75 years due to the toll of drought and parasites. And exports of beef bound to the U.S. are down because of Trump’s trade war and tariffs. As a result, the prices of ground beef sold in supermarkets is up 13% in September, year over year.
Do you remember all those times that I wrote how the size of the U.S. cattle herd was shrinking?
At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal to many people.
But it sure is a big deal now.
Sadly, this is just the beginning.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is warning that the price of beef could cross the 10 dollar per pound threshold in 2026…
Speaking to Fox News Sunday, Bessent addressed reports that beef prices could hit $10 per pound next year, saying it was an issue “inherited” by the administration due to long-standing factors.
“There’s also, because of the mass immigration, a disease that we’d been rid of in North America made its way up through South America as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them,” Bessent said.
He added: “So part of the problem is we’ve had to shut the border to Mexican beef because of this disease called the screwworm.”
Beef is now considered to be a “luxury meat”, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.
In 2026 and beyond, expect to see a lot more “food products” that contain insect protein in our grocery stores.
Our standard of living is going down.
Those that cannot see that are blind.
There is a reason why 42 million Americans are on food stamps.
Millions of Americans greeted the end of the government shutdown — and the resumption of food stamp benefits — with relief. But others are learning they could soon lose federal food aid permanently.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins directed USDA staff during the record-setting 43-day shutdown to continue ushering states toward compliance with Republicans’ signature tax and spending law, which is projected to kick millions out of the nation’s largest anti-hunger program in the next few months.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday the Trump administration will require all participants in the nation’s largest food assistance program to reapply for benefits in an effort to prevent fraud.
Recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which supports more than 40 million Americans, will need to demonstrate that their households still meet eligibility requirements to continue receiving benefits.
Rollins said SNAP, meant to be a lifeline for low-income households, was among the first priorities she targeted for review, citing concerns about eligibility and oversight.
This is going to make a lot of people very, very angry.
The rising cost of health insurance is also making a lot of people very, very angry.
One woman that recently lost her workplace coverage was horrified to learn that they cheapest plan that her family qualified for was $2,500 a month…
This American does not qualify for any subsidized health insurance
It’s her, her husband and 3 kids. A family of 5
The cheapest plan she can get on marketplace is $2,500 per month
This is absolutely unsustainable. Families literally can’t afford to have children in America
Our system is so broken.
There is a reason why so many Americans absolutely detest it.
As just about everything becomes more expensive, more Americans than ever feel like they are drowning financially.
As borrowing costs rise and savings thin out, more Americans are falling behind on their bills. Serious delinquencies—people who are at least 90 days late—have now surpassed 3 percent, a threshold not seen since before the last financial crisis. Student loan borrowers are under even greater strain: more than 14 percent became severely overdue in the most recent quarter, marking the worst level in the Fed’s data history.
Working harder and making more money is not necessarily the answer either.
USA Today recently published an article that discussed the fact that large numbers of Americans that are making more than six figures a year are now in “survival mode”…
A six-figure salary doesn’t mean what it once did.
That’s the takeaway from a new Harris poll, which suggests a six-figure income in 2025 equates to survival, but not necessarily to success.
One in three six-figure earners described themselves in the poll as financially distressed. Two in three said six-figure pay is not a sign of wealth.
This is not going to end well.
For years I have been documenting the destruction of the middle class, and now the evisceration of America’s middle class has gone into overdrive.
I don’t understand why more people can’t see what they are doing to us.
Yes, the wealthy are getting wealthier, but the vast majority of the rest of us are getting the raw end of the deal.
If you are deeply struggling in this very difficult economic environment, please know that you aren’t alone.
There are millions upon millions of Americans that are scrambling to find a way to survive, and what we have been through so far is just the tip of the iceberg.
If there’s any good that’s come from the government shutdown, it’s exposing all the fraud being committed to exploit the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
To be sure, there are millions of needy Americans who were hurting from being deprived of SNAP as they tried to support children and keep their families from going hungry. This is not about them. This is about the other people — the individuals who dip into this program unjustly at the expense of the taxpayer.
Just the News reported that Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Steven Vaden has indicated his agency is engaging in data collection relating to SNAP across several states to see where funds for the program are going.
So far, what he’s uncovered is not promising.
Vaden cited an instance of one individual getting SNAP in six separate states.
Another person had over $50,000 loaded onto their electronic benefits card.
EBT cards work like credit cards for anyone getting government assistance, with funds rolling over to the following month.
Clearly something is amiss.
As Vaden put it, “The taxpayers have a right to know what is being done with their money and that, when we have appropriations, we are spending more than nine billion a month.”
On the case of a $50,000 card, Vaden clarified, “[Taxpayers] especially have a right to rest assured that only those who truly need are benefitting from the program, because every dollar you give to someone who has a balance of more than $15,000 on their EBT card cannot go to someone who is truly in need.”
SNAP fraud gets worse when considering recent comments by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on “The Ingraham Angle.”
Over 500,000 people were found to have been taking SNAP benefits twice, with 5,000 dead people receiving it.
INSANE: Sec. Brooke Rollins reveals 500,000 people are receiving SNAP benefits two times under the same name, and 5,000 dead people are still on the program.
She says a massive announcement is coming next week on the plan to crack down on this scandal.
The uncomfortable truth is that this fraud has to go deeper.
If the Trump administration is truly concerned about saving the American people money, they’ve got to make the appropriate reductions, and that includes SNAP.
Democrats’ rhetoric around this issue boiled down to Trump and Republicans letting millions of needy people starve.
Putting aside that the recent shutdown was perpetuated by that party, recent findings fly in the face of that narrative.
ALEXANDRIA, VA — Inspired by the Trump White House’s move toward 50-year mortgages, popular burger chain Five Guys announced it would be addressing the ongoing “Five Guys Affordability Crisis” with convenient 50-year burger financing.
“We get it. Things are expensive, especially our burgers,” the company said in a public press release. “But new burger financing options make our menu more accessible to the average consumer than ever. Sign up for 10-year, 30-year, or even 50-year financing options. No credit check required!”
Economists urged customers not to sign up for Five Guys’ burger financing program, warning that the interest alone will amount to $10,000. “It doesn’t hurt as much up front, but this is really just a price hike disguised as a discount,” warned economic expert Paul Krugman.
Five Guys CEO Jerry Murrell, the first of the five guys, dismissed concerns that he was conning consumers and argued that their burger financing options adhere to the Wimpy code. “J. Wellington Wimpy from ‘Popeye’ simply wanted to pay people Tuesday for a hamburger today,” Murrell explained. “This is the same principle. We’ll gladly give you a burger today, and you can gradually pay it off for the rest of your life.”
Despite expert concerns, however, customers were already flocking to Five Guys, with diners slowly realizing that the typical person doesn’t buy one burger over the course of their life, they buy several hundred.
“One burger costs a lot if you pay for it all at once, but I can spread that cost out over several decades,” said local burger consumer Tony Hart. “But that’s the future’s problem. I’ll let my grandkids deal with it.”
At publishing time, Five Guys opened a new division within their company seeking full-time repo men to handle customers who fall behind on their burger payments.
Babylon Bee subscriber Dr Conservative Prof contributed to this report. If you want to pitch your own headline ideas to our staff, click here to check out all of our membership options!
We are less than two weeks into the month of November, and the mainstream media is telling us that millions of Americans are “starving”. If our society is this vulnerable to a temporary disruption in food stamp benefits, what is it going to be like when global events really start hitting the fan and there is no food in our grocery stores at all? Much of the population is just a few missed meals away from going completely haywire. For now, at least those that have not received their food stamp benefits this month can rely on local food banks. But would you be willing to line up at 2:30 in the morning just to get some free food? That is precisely what just happened in the Bronx…
In the Bronx, throngs of desperate locals lined up as early as 2:30 a.m. at food banks because of disruptions in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance benefits caused by the shutdown.
Carmen Verona told The Post she was there for the time ever because her mom and brother had their benefits cut. Her own $459 monthly SNAP benefits aren’t enough.
“Without the food stamps, it’s a lot … and that’s not even enough because I always got to put out of pocket like $200, $300 because it’s too expensive,” said Verona, 58, as she picked up fruit, vegetables, and apple juice.
The reason why people line up so early is because there might not be enough food for everyone.
In Indianapolis, one elderly woman that thought that she had gotten in line at her local food bank early enough ended up leaving empty-handed…
On Saturday morning, bundled in a coat, hat and gloves, Alicia Engel waited in a line outside Fountain Square Church of Christ for a cart of free groceries. An hour before the city-sponsored event was scheduled to end, volunteers ran out of food — and Engel left empty-handed.
This is how badly our economy has deteriorated.
If the food stamp program permanently disappeared, millions upon millions of desperate Americans would suddenly be absolutely destitute.
At one food bank in Cleveland, hordes of hungry people lined up in the rain to get some free food. When Fox News posted footage of the line on X, it got hundreds of thousands of views…
A video of a large line outside a food bank in Cleveland has gone viral amid the ongoing freezing of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the government shutdown.
Fox News posted footage showing long lines of people queuing outside a food bank on its X account. At the time of writing, the video had accrued 599,000 views.
You have to be really committed to stand in the rain for hours.
In other parts of the country, people are able to wait in their vehicles. For example, on one recent morning in Tallahassee “hundreds of cars lined up outside a shopping mall for emergency food assistance”…
On a cold Saturday morning in Tallahassee, hundreds of cars lined up outside a shopping mall for emergency food assistance. Among them was Joe Elliott, a newly retired man with liver disease, whose rising medical costs and lapsed SNAP benefits left him in need, per Chronicle Online.
The food distribution, organized by Second Harvest and supported by United Way of the Big Bend and WTXL, aimed to serve 1,500 families. CEO Monique Ellsworth said calls for help have surged as nearly 100,000 residents in the region face uncertainty over food aid.
Within its service area of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, more than 168,000 people rely on CalFresh, the state of California’s version of SNAP, Bacho says.
On Monday alone, over 1,500 unique users visited the bank’s online food locator tool, which connects people to nearby food distribution sites, according to Bacho. That’s nearly double the usual volume.
Their hotline has also experienced a 200% increase in requests for referrals, she says.
I was surprised to learn that California is not even among the top 10 states that are most heavily dependent on the food stamp program.
It turns out that New Mexico, Oregon and Louisiana lead that list…
New Mexico -21.5 percent
Oregon – 18.1 percent
Louisiana – 17.5 percent
Oklahoma – 16.9 percent
W. Virginia – 15.5 percent
Nevada – 15.2 percent
Massachusetts – 15.1 percent
Pennsylvania – 15.0 percent
New York – 14.9 percent
Illinois – 14.8 percent
There were a few states that began paying out full food stamp benefits last week, but the Trump administration is ordering those states to “immediately undo” what they have done…
The Trump administration has instructed states that they must “immediately undo any steps” that were taken to provide full SNAP benefits to low-income Americans, saying states were “unauthorized.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a late-night Saturday memo obtained by CBS News, also threatened to impose financial penalties on states that did not comply with the government’s new orders.
“To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” Patrick Penn, deputy undersecretary of Agriculture, wrote to state SNAP directors. “Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025.”
What a colossal mess.
And the fact that this crisis has erupted just before Thanksgiving is making a lot of recipients even more upset…
“Nothing, I didn’t get nothing this month,” Anthony Miller said.
Miller said he was supposed to see nearly $300 on his link card on November 1.
“It’s confusing and Trump don’t want to release it, and that’s why he’s taking it to court, and it don’t make no sense at all that we got to starve out here, and he did it at the time of Thanksgiving,” he said.
Did you notice that he used the word “starve”.
We are suddenly hearing that word at lot.
In fact, one female EBT recipient that claims that she is “starving” has been getting a tremendous amount of attention online…https://www.youtube.com/embed/pm99ugfnkAA?si=NKkS-JGCIAne6DjX
Needless to say, that woman is not starving.
If you go without food for a few days, that is not going to hurt you.
In fact, for most of the population going without food for a few days would actually be quite beneficial for their health.
If you have a chronic disease, fasting is one of the best things that you could possibly do for your body.
The reason why we are hearing the word “starve” so much is because the mainstream media is constantly using it and many top Democrats are constantly using it…
“Donald Trump and his administration have made the decision to weaponize hunger, to withhold SNAP benefits from millions of people, notwithstanding the fact that two lower courts, both the district court and the court of appeals, made clear that those SNAP benefits needed to be paid immediately,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said on CNN Saturday, calling the actions “shameful.”
“Donald Trump is literally fighting in court to ensure Americans starve. HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU,” echoed California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, on X.
Nobody in the United States is starving.
If you want to see real starvation, just look at what is happening in Africa right now.
People are literally dropping dead from a lack of food, but that hardly gets any attention from the western media.
So let’s put all of this into perspective.
This food stamp crisis is just temporary, and the good news is that it looks like a deal to end the government shutdown may be within reach.
We shall see.
But even if this government shutdown ends, there are a couple of things that we all need to remember.
Number one, demand at U.S. food banks was at record levels even before the government shutdown started.
Number two, if there is some sort of a major emergency someday and the federal government is no longer able to feed tens of millions of Americans, things will get very bad in this country very rapidly.
As grocery prices have risen, demand at food banks throughout the country has surged to very alarming levels. At the end of 2024, I wrote about how demand at food banks had risen to record levels all over the United States. Unfortunately, demand has continued to rise in 2025, and now the government shutdown has shifted America’s hunger crisis into overdrive. Millions of very hungry people are showing up at food banks looking for something to eat, and resources are being stretched to the limit.
There is no area of the nation that is not being affected by this crisis.
For example, it is being reported that food banks in Iowa are experiencing “record demand” during this government shutdown…
Food pantries across Iowa are seeing record demand as families wait for the federal government to restore their food assistance benefits.
While families wait, many are turning to food pantries for help. At WayPoint Resources in Waukee, the line for food stretched out the door Monday.
“We just opened at noon today. And already in that first hour, we saw double the number of people that we normally see,” said Melissa Stimple, the center’s executive director.
We are seeing similar things happen in other parts of the nation too.
Eric Cooper, president and CEO of San Antonio Food Bank, which serves 29 counties in southwest Texas, said the number of families seeking help has increased since it was first announced that there would be a disruption in SNAP benefits should the government shutdown continue.
Cooper said San Antonio Food Bank, which is part of the nonprofit organization Feeding America, typically feeds 105,000 to 120,000 people per week but is now seeing close to 170,000 people per week.
When you suddenly go from serving 120,000 people per week to serving 170,000 people per week, it is going to be very difficult to have enough food for everyone.
Often those at the end of food bank lines end up with nothing, and that is why so many people are lining up early.
On Detroit’s east side, dozens of cars lined around the block at Forgotten Harvest’s Jermaine Jackson Academy drive-thru food pantry Monday morning. It was the location’s first time operating since SNAP funding lapsed this month.
Kim Lewis, who runs the site, said her group faced cold weather and rain to serve more than 250 families.
The “higher demand” was clear – volunteers described cars waiting along Gratiot Avenue hours before the pantry’s opening. Forty minutes after the site closed, the group was still loading up cars, only stopping after supplies depleted.
In Colorado, approximately 100 vehicles were lined up at a food bank in Greeley before the doors were even opened…
About 100 cars lined up along H Street near Weld Food Bank in Greeley on Monday morning before the organization opened its doors, their drivers and passengers waiting to pick up food on the third day of a lapse in funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Staff and volunteers worked through a typical lunch break to meet demand, maneuvering shopping carts full of food to their awaiting recipients. By the end of the day, the food bank served about 2,200 people, according to Weston Edmunds, the food bank’s director of marketing and communications.
This is what our country looks like now.
Millions of formerly middle class Americans are now in desperate need of food.
I have been ranting about the destruction of the middle class for years, but a lot of people out there didn’t take me seriously.
Now look at what has happened.
If you think that we are facing this crisis just because of the current government shutdown, you are way off.
Howard said the increased need at the Pantry started long before the shutdown ever happened, and it’s only gotten worse as a result.
“Year to date we’re 30% higher than last year. This week alone we signed up 23 new families,” she said.
The Pantry served 18,000 people in 2024, 60% of whom which were adults over 60 years old and children under 18.
As I have carefully documented, hunger has been rising in the United States for years.
And now we are rapidly getting to a point where there simply will not be enough food for everyone.
On Monday, large numbers of people lined up to get some food at a facility in Portland. Unfortunately, those that were waiting at the end of the line faced the possibility of ending up with nothing because there just wasn’t enough food…
The situation has led to unprecedented demand at local food providers, such as the Blanchet House in Northwest Portland, where lines stretched two blocks on Monday morning as people waited in the rain for a meal.
Julia Showers, communications director for the Blanchet House, noted the unusual demand: “We’re seeing lines, historic lines. Our staff had to go out before we closed the doors and just let everyone know that we have to get a line here. Some people might not get a plate.”
The longer this government shutdown continues, the worse things will get.
The same thing could be said about our air traffic crisis.
According to ABC News, the U.S. Department of Transportation “might be forced to shut down the airspace in certain parts of the country if the government shutdown continues into next week”…
The Department of Transportation might be forced to shut down the airspace in certain parts of the country if the government shutdown continues into next week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Tuesday.
“So if, if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos,” he said. “You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancelations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.”
We have never seen anything quite like this before.
Air traffic controllers are required to work without pay through the government shutdown, but vast numbers of them are choosing not to show up for work…
Nearly 50% of all major air traffic control facilities face staffing shortages, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Air traffic controllers are required to work without pay for the duration of the shutdown.
About 13,000 air traffic controllers are currently working without pay, according to the FAA. On Friday, the agency said that 80% of New York area staff had called out.
Hopefully the government shutdown will be resolved soon and air traffic will return to normal.
But even if the government shutdown ends, America’s growing food crisis is not going to go away.
There are multiple long-term trends that are playing havoc with global food production.
I warned that this would result in higher food prices in wealthy western nations, and that is precisely what has transpired.
Sadly, this is just the beginning.
We are going to continue to lose valuable top soil, fertilizer prices will continue to spike, weather patterns are only going to get crazier, and our planet will continue to become increasingly unstable.
On top of everything else, we continue to poison our air, our water and our soil in countless ways.
There is only one way that all of this is going to end, and I don’t have to tell you that it isn’t going to be pretty.
Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The good news is that 50 percent of food stamp benefits will be paid out during the month of November. The bad news is that a lot of food stamp recipients are still extremely angry. Food stamp protests are already starting to happen, videos are being posted on social media that show people how to take groceries right out the front door of a Walmart, and one woman is claiming that “everyone was stealing” when she visited her local grocery store. Of course if you live in an area where food stamp use is very low, conditions may seem perfectly normal. It just depends on where you live. Hopefully the government shutdown will be resolved very soon, because if we get to a point where no more food stamp money is coming from Washington at all things could get really crazy.
In a declaration submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, Patrick Penn, a Department of Agriculture official who oversees SNAP, said the administration “intends to deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits for November 2025.”
There is roughly $4.6 billion in the contingency fund that can be used to cover November benefit payments, according to Penn. Officials have said fully covering those benefits would require roughly $9 billion. The $4.6 billion will be used to “cover 50% of eligible households’ current allotments,” Penn said.
Will this be enough to stop widespread rioting and looting from breaking out this month?
If food stamp recipients start receiving some money, that could help settle things down. Unfortunately, we are being warned that it may take some states “weeks” or even “months” to distribute reduced benefit amounts…
In his declaration with the court in Rhode Island, USDA official Patrick Penn said that getting SNAP benefits into the hands of recipients could face delays, since states will have to rework their systems to provide partial payments.
“Given the variation among State systems, some of which are decades old, it is unclear how many States will complete the changes in an automated manner with minimal disruption versus manual overrides or computations that could lead to payment errors and significant delays,” Penn wrote.
He added: “For at least some States, USDA’s understanding is that the system changes States must implement to provide the reduced benefit amounts will take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months.”
This is yet another example of how incompetent government agencies have become.
How long does it take to calculate a 50 percent reduction in benefits?
This isn’t exactly rocket science.
There could be millions of food stamp recipients that have to wait for an extended period of time for their reduced November benefits, and that certainly isn’t going to make them very happy.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has told grocery stores not to give special discounts to around 42 million Americans who use food stamps.
An email sent by the department to stores, posted on X by Catherine Rampell, co-host of MSNBC’s The Weekend, said: “You cannot treat SNAP-EBT customers differently than any other customer.”
Was that really necessary?
There are a lot of people out there that are really hurting right now.
Yes, it is certainly true that there are some that choose to abuse the system.
For example, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins just admitted that thousands upon thousands of people have been illegally using food stamps…
“We have found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT card, we have been moving people off of SNAP, we’ve got about 700,000 people that we’ve moved off SNAP since the president took office, and we’ve arrested about 118 people,” Rollins said.
She added that investigators also discovered about 5,000 dead people who were still receiving benefits.
There should be consequences for abusing the system.
I think that is something that we should all be able to agree on.
I have no idea how she is able to get that much money.
Is she telling the government that she has 12 kids or something?
People like that ruin the system for everyone else.
There really are millions of Americans that do not have enough food to eat every month, and the food stamp program is an important lifeline for them.
Unfortunately for them, it does not appear that this government shutdown is going to end any time soon.
During an interview with CBS News, President Trump explained that the government shutdown will finally end when the Democrats decide to give up…
“I’m not going to do it by being extorted by the Democrats who have lost their way,” Mr. Trump said. “There’s something wrong with these people.”
Mr. Trump said he believes that Democrats will eventually capitulate and vote to end the shutdown.
“And if they don’t vote, that’s their problem,” he said.
I don’t think that the Democrats are going to give up for quite a while.
I think that the Democrats feel like they have an opportunity to turn the political mood in this country in their favor.
So for now, millions of food stamp recipients will just have to stretch their meals as far as they can…
Christophe Niyibizi, 67, said he and his wife had begun limiting themselves to one full meal each day, in midafternoon, to try and make their food last longer. After spending $14 on Saturday for a few groceries, he had $83 remaining — and no way of knowing if his next monthly benefit would show up as scheduled in 10 days.
Placing his small grocery bag into his car, Mr. Niyibizi shrugged and smiled when asked if he felt hungry. A U.S. citizen who immigrated to the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo a dozen years ago, he recalled how he had prayed, while still in Africa, that he would make it to America one day.
“This country is a good country, 100 percent,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve had this problem.”
If we get to Thanksgiving and the government shutdown has not ended, I think that things could get really wild.
But it doesn’t have to get to that stage.
If our politicians in Washington can work things out, we could potentially avoid a scenario in which we see widespread rioting and looting.
The level of anger among America’s impoverished masses is rising very quickly, and if it rises high enough we could see a very frightening explosion.
I suppose that we should not be surprised, because they told us exactly what they intended to do. For weeks, food stamp recipients have been posting videos on social media telling us what will happen if their food stamp benefits are cut off. We have been warned that they will go to their local grocery stores and fill up their carts just as they normally do. We have also been warned that there will be violence if anyone tries to stop them when they leave without paying. A lot of people out there were convinced that these lunatics were bluffing, but the truth is that what they threatened to do has already started to happen.
In Massachusetts, two crazed women were just arrested for “shoplifting expensive groceries and then attacking employees”…
Two women are facing charges for allegedly shoplifting expensive groceries and then attacking employees at a Market Basket in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, over the weekend.
Olivia L. Byrd, 37, of Quincy, and Rahjane J. Byrd, 28, of Hyde Park, were each charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, shoplifting by asportation, and disorderly conduct.
They found out the hard way that stealing groceries is not as easy as TikTok influencers would have us to believe.
In the real world, if you steal things you could end up in prison.
Investigators say the Byrds were concealing high-priced items, including lobster meat, prime ribeye steaks, and truffle butter in a bag while shopping.
The women allegedly did not pay for the items at checkout and were confronted by store employees.
The confrontation between store employees and these two women did not go well.
In fact, one of the women hit a store employee with her phone “right in the face”…
“She cracked him hard with that cellphone, right in the face,” said Jeff Cuddy, who filmed the altercation. “And the guy was respectful and responsible, and he just let it go.”
I am glad that they were caught.
Hopefully this will discourage other potential thieves.
But there will inevitably be some people that will be able to get away with stealing food from their local grocery stores.
In Chambersburg, Pennsylvania police are currently looking for a man that walked straight out the front door with a full cart of food…
Police in Chambersburg are looking for a person of interest who was seen on surveillance video leaving a grocery store with a full cart.
According to police, a man filled his cart full of items at the Giant in the 900 block of Wayne Avenue on September 28, and then left without paying.
In 2025, stealing a full cart of food is not a small crime.
Depending on what you select, a full cart of food can easily cost you several hundred dollars these days.
If we start witnessing widespread grocery thefts all over the nation, I think that it won’t be too long before we start seeing armed guards in food stores and armed guards on food delivery trucks.
One particularly foolish woman actually posted a video in which she openly bragged about all of the stuff that she just stole from her local grocery store. When she is finally caught, it will be very easy to convict her…
Four weeks into the federal government shutdown, a woman claiming she’s out of food stamps is bragging online about stealing from a grocery store while urging others to steal at will and “infiltrate” churches to get cash.
The woman who goes by “consiracycutiee” and has a username of @jaalagotanattitude posted her illegal shoplifting exploits on social media, using extremely graphic language.
“Everything out here is yours,” she said. “Whether or not you take it, they call that sh** free will. I call that sh** eminent domain. You know what I’m saying? One thing I learned from the white men: Take it!”
This is the kind of young people that our society is now producing.
I think that says a lot about the condition of our society at this stage.
Sadly, there are millions of others just like her.
When things really start hitting the fan in this country, they aren’t going to hold back.
Any stores that still have self-checkout counters tend to be shoplifting magnets.
In Florida, one woman has been arrested for stealing over a thousand dollars worth of groceries from a Publix in Port Charlotte…
A Port Charlotte woman is accused of stealing more than $1,000 in groceries from a Publix.
According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, Lisandra Gallardo, 38, was arrested Tuesday after deputies responded to reports of multiple thefts over the course of a month at the Publix on South McCall Road.
CCSO said Gallardo stole from the store by using a duffel bag to hide items and only scanned a couple of products at self-checkout, taking the rest without paying.
A lot of times these people get caught because they just get too greedy.
If you keep going back again and again, eventually somebody is going to notice what you are doing.
Sadly, it won’t just be grocery stores that get hit during the weeks ahead.
In Kansas, one 38-year-old man is being charged with stealing food from an apartment complex “more than a dozen times”…
Police have arrested a 38-year-old man accused of stealing food from a Wichita apartment complex more than a dozen times.
Sedgwick County jail records show Jeremie Adams was booked Tuesday for 15 counts of aggravated burglary and 15 counts of theft. He was held without bond Wednesday morning.
Wichita police say Adams is accused of forcing entry into Eaton Place Apartments at 517 East Douglas and taking food from the common-area pantry without paying. There are 15 confirmed incidents since mid-August.
When people without any moral standards get hungry, they are going to steal.
And if food stamps get cut off nationwide on November 1st, we are going to see a whole lot of very desperate people out there.
The good news is that there seems to be at least some hope that the government shutdown could be resolved soon…
Senators returned to Capitol Hill on Thursday to resume talks aimed at ending the government shutdown, now on its 30th day.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNBC that “a lot more conversations” are happening between rank-and-file members, and suggested that next week’s elections might provide the catalyst needed to end the stalemate.
The Senate is not currently scheduled to vote on the House-passed continuing resolution to end the shutdown on Thursday.
Food stamp payments have never been stopped before.
So we don’t know exactly what will occur if it happens now.
Will there be rioting and looting?
Will the people that have been posting videos on social media follow through on their threats?
In just a few days we may find out whether they meant what they said or not.
The second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history has millions of Americans worried about how they’re going to feed their families. Senators returned to Capitol Hill on Monday, but so far, there are no signs of a truce.
Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, is set to run dry on Saturday, cutting off food assistance for some 42 million Americans enrolled in the program. That’s more than 12 percent of the U.S. population.
As the deadline approaches, food pantries are seeing a surge in demand.
Beth White of the Central Christian Church Food Pantry in downtown Indianapolis said, “We usually serve between 45 and 50 households, which is about 200 people. Today, we’re at number 76, and we’re still receiving people.”
In Arizona, resident Sherry Wood argued, “There’s no reason why the strongest country in the world, as we claim, is letting our people starve.”
The Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, appeared willing to use emergency funds as a short-term solution, but then backtracked saying Congress would have to take action.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) explained, “There has to be a pre-existing appropriation for the contingency fund to be used.”
Among those stepping in to help is Operation Blessing’s Hunger Strike Force.
David Edson of the Hunger Relief Program said, “We’re ramping up to respond to this and putting meal kits together, and every dollar donated to Operation Blessing is something we’re able to exponentially multiply because of the network of food manufacturers and partners that we have across the United States.”
Edson says people can also help by giving to their local food banks.
“In your local communities, you can work directly with food pantries. So if you are a home gardener and you have an excess of fruits or vegetables, please take those to your local food pantry. If you have backyard chickens that have more eggs than you know what to do with, please take those to your local food pantries,” he said.
“Volunteering is a big thing because a lot of these places are going to be overwhelmed with need, and they’re going to need more people to help console, comfort, and serve these families. So volunteering is another great avenue to do that,” Edson continued.
Unless a political resolution is found in just a few days, millions of Americans could go hungry.
But some leaders are vowing to find a way to prevent that. Virginia’s Governor Youngkin has declared a state of emergency saying he will use funds from a state surplus to keep SNAP funded in Virginia.
One aspect of the government shutdown that probably wasn’t anticipated by Chuck Schumer and other Democrats, is that it has revealed to the public just how many people receive food stamps.
Years ago, when the program was still called ‘food stamps’ it was seen as something that struggling families might use temporarily to get through a hard time. Then it was re-branded as the ‘SNAP’ program and destigmatized. People were encouraged to enroll. Now there are many more people using the program, many who probably don’t even really need it.
The longer the shutdown goes on, the more reports there are about this and it’s stunning to taxpayers who did not realize until now how incredibly huge this is.
SNAP funding expiration set to hit 40 million people
More than 40 million low-income food assistance beneficiaries are expected to receive less help with grocery bills — or no help at all — in the coming days.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contingency funding, which Congress has already allocated for emergency scenarios, if the government shutdown stretches into November.
There is between $5 billion and $6 billion currently in that fund, experts say. That’s not enough to cover the estimated $8 billion in SNAP benefits due out next month, but it would allow for partial payments to help low-income Americans defray food costs.
On Friday, however, the USDA released guidance saying it won’t use those funds to cover SNAP benefits if the government shutdown extends beyond Oct. 31 — a move that appears designed to maximize the pressure on Senate Democrats to support a GOP spending bill to reopen the government.
One journalist on Newsmax recently pointed out that many of the people receiving benefits are recent arrivals under Biden.
“There are 42 million people in this country that need food stamps on a weekly basis.”
“And we’re saying ‘people’ deliberately instead of Americans because most of the people that are on food stamps aren’t even from this country.”
“45% of Afghanistan immigrants are on food stamps.”
“42% of Somali immigrants, 34% of every immigrant from Iraq, 23% of Haitians.”
“59% of ALL illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the U.S. Government and the U.S. Taxpayer are not even Americans.”
“Think about that.”
“And we didn’t know about any of this before the government shutdown started.”
Watch:
Newsmax host @RobFinnertyUSA just said what no one in mainstream media will admit about SNAP.
He tore the mask off the entire food stamps program…and what he revealed will infuriate taxpayers.
It is already happening. There has been a lot of talk that there will be a surge in demand at America’s overwhelmed food banks once funding for the food stamp program ends in early November, but the truth is that we are already witnessing a surge in demand. So what is going to happen if the current government shutdown persists for an extended period of time? On one recent evening, the line at a food bank in downtown Kansas City “snaked through the parking lot, down a driveway and into the street”…
On a recent Thursday evening, the line of cars waiting to pick up food at Redemptorist Social Services Center in midtown snaked through the parking lot, down a driveway and into the street.
Demand for free food is soaring across Kansas City, as job cuts increase, food inflation remains persistently high and federal food assistance is slashed by the Trump administration.
Julie McCaw, executive director at Redemptorist, called the situation “alarming.” Families with working parents, senior citizens and people who simply cannot find work increasingly are turning to food pantries like hers for help.
Sadly, this is just the beginning.
At one location in San Francisco the lines “typically extend a city block”, but the president and CEO of that facility openly admits that the lines are “about to get longer”…
Each week, as president and CEO of the San Francisco social justice nonprofit Glide, I walk past the lines of people who wait for our free meal program. Those lines typically extend a city block.
They’re about to get longer.
If you find yourself needing to go to a food bank during the weeks ahead, my recommendation would be to get there very early.
Because once the food is gone, there is nothing left to hand out.
That recently happened at the Capital Area Food Bank in Maryland, but fortunately a truck with more supplies showed up just in time…
The Capital Area Food Bank started the morning with 300 boxes, enough for 150 families to receive two boxes each. They ran out halfway through distribution.
Cheers erupted as another truck backed into the shopping center parking lot. Federal workers, in a line that wrapped around the shopping center and into the neighborhood, clapped and cheered at the sight of reinforcements arriving at the emergency food distribution site.
If the line at that food bank is long enough to wrap around a shopping center now, what is it going to look like in a few weeks?
Marissa Brown, who runs the Roadrunner Food Bank distribution, says the line has increased by approximately 50 households to 225 each week. She estimated a line once composed mostly of unhoused people pushing carts is now probably 60% people with roofs over their heads.
“We are just seeing more of our neighbors who are housed coming, too, because it’s just hard for everyone,” Brown told Source New Mexico as people worked their way through the line Friday morning. “We’re really pleased that we can just expand that reach to anyone who might need it, but it certainly has expanded.”
Neighboring Texas is experiencing a similar surge in demand.
In fact, it is being reported that at food banks throughout the state the lines are “growing longer every day”…
The West Texas Food Bank is sounding the alarm. As the federal government shutdown continues, thousands of West Texans — including federal employees and families depending on SNAP benefits — are left wondering how they’ll put food on the table.
The Food Bank is stepping in to fill the gap, but shelves are emptying faster than they can be restocked. Demand has surged across the 19 counties served by the organization, with lines growing longer every day.
“We are seeing fear in people’s eyes,” Libby Stephens, CEO of the West Texas Food Bank, said in a news release. “Parents will skip meals so their children can eat. Families who have always been the ones giving help will find themselves asking for it. We will do everything we can, but our resources are already stretched to the limit. We desperately need the community’s help more than ever.”
We haven’t seen anything like this in a long time.
In our nation’s capital, federal workers that are suddenly without paychecks are lining up to get free food and supplies from a food bank in southeast DC…
Federal workers lined up around the corner outside of the Capital Area Food Bank in Southeast Washington, D.C., on Friday after missing their first full paycheck since the now 24-day government shutdown began.
The food bank, set up specifically for federal workers, provided boxed meals, household goods and personal hygiene items to over 250 federal employees on Friday, according to Wil Stroman, a local pastor who is helping organize a food bank for federal workers every Friday until the shutdown ends.
This is why it is so important to always have a sizable emergency fund.
If you suddenly lose your job or some sort of a temporary emergency happens, you will still need to pay your bills and feed your family.
Yes, it is great that the food banks are there.
But they can only do so much.
We haven’t even reached the month of November yet, and one food bank in Huntington, West Virginia is already rationing potatoes…
Cynthia Kirkhart, the CEO of Facing Hunger Foodbank in Huntington, West Virginia, has already had to explain to customers this year why the organization is rationing bags of potatoes.
The food bank, which also serves households in Kentucky and Ohio, has had to shrink its allotments as higher food costs and surging need strain its budget.
I never imagined that we would be talking about rationing potatoes in November 2025, but here we are.
When things start to go bad, they tend to do so very quickly, and you definitely don’t want to be caught without enough food when things really start hitting the fan.
These are such perilous times.
My hope is that the government shutdown will be resolved soon so that our food banks will not get absolutely crushed by a tsunami of new demand.
But right now we are being told that this shutdown is likely to last quite a bit longer, and that is not good news for any of us.
People all over social media are publicly threatening to steal food once their EBT benefits run out. Some of them are taking it one step further by threatening to get violent with anyone that tries to prevent them from stealing food. So what is our country going to look like if this actually happens on a widespread basis? Today is day 26 of the government shutdown, and there is no end in sight. It appears that food stamp benefits will not be paid out to 42 million Americans at the beginning of November, and nobody is exactly sure what is going to happen next.
Personally, I have never seen as much anger directed toward the federal government as I am seeing right now.
When people openly admit that they plan to commit acts that are morally wrong, I tend to believe them.
I know that it isn’t easy out there right now.
I write about the economic suffering in this nation all the time.
But there is no excuse for theft and there is no excuse for violence.
Unfortunately, I think that we are going to see a lot of theft and a lot of violence during the weeks ahead. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, November 1st is a hard deadline because “the well has run dry”…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on its website that SNAP benefits won’t be sent out come Nov. 1 because the program lacks the funding it needs during the ongoing government shutdown.
SNAP, also known as food stamps, is a federal program that provides 42 million Americans monthly benefits to afford healthy food.
“Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1,” a message on USDA’s website as of Oct. 27 says.
Some states are going to continue funding food stamp benefits for as long as they can.
A family of four on average receives $715 (£540) per month, according to CBPP, which breaks down to a little less than $6 (£4.50) per day per person.
The states administer the programmes, with much of the funding coming from the federal government.
Several states have pledged to use their own funds to cover any shortfall, however the federal government has warned that they will not be reimbursed.
There are certain states that will get hit far harder than others.
For example, in New Mexico a whopping 21 percent of the entire population is on food stamps…
In terms of state population proportions, New Mexico is the state most dependent on SNAP, with 21 percent, or 451,200, of its residents claiming food stamps in 2024. It is followed by Louisiana and Oregon, where 18 percent get benefits.
Those numbers are staggering.
Nearly one out of every five people in Oregon and Louisiana is on food stamps, and more than one out of every five people in New Mexico is on food stamps.
I think that we will probably see the most chaos in large urban areas such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.
When people get hungry, they also tend to get very emotional.
And the fact that EBT benefits are being cut off just before the holidays is just going to intensify the emotions that people are now feeling…
Another said, ‘Cutting off EBT during the holidays is heartless & telling people “just get a job” behind these food stamps is crazy. AINT NOBODY HIRING. People been getting LAID OFF by the THOUSANDS. Y’all are evil.’
‘If you’ve never had to survive on food stamps you don’t understand what’s about to happen to many families next month,’ agreed a third.
The gap between the wealthy and the poor has never been wider, and this crisis will only make things worse.
The vast majority of the country, and this is especially true for those that are poor, are just barely scraping by from month to month.
“I applied on Sept. 11,” he said. “They actually approved me that same day, but I didn’t find out until I got a letter in the mail later. I’ve been waiting for my food stamp card ever since—since around Sept. 20.”
Nearly a month later, he’s still waiting. Daryl says the delay has turned everyday living expenses into a day-by-day struggle.
“Groceries right now in my house are nonexistent,” he said. “My fridge is empty—just condiments. When I do get food, it’s just something for that day. I can’t even think about tomorrow.”
There are tens of millions of other Americans that are just like Daryl.
This is one of the reasons why I rant about the failures of our system so much.
All along the way, our system has failed men like Daryl.
But this is what happens when you make government the central pillar of your economy.
In one way or another, the vast majority of the population becomes dependent on the government.
In addition to food stamp benefits being cut off, if this government shutdown persists it is going to cause an enormous amount of economic pain in other ways as well…
Thousands of federal employees will also miss their first full paychecks this week, so services like TSA screenings and air traffic control operations could be further stunted if those workers stop showing up, as was the case during the 35-day partial shutdown that ended in early 2019.
“Things are about to get worse,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned in a floor speech late last week.
And that’s to say nothing of the Nov. 1 date that open enrollment begins for Affordable Care Act health plans. That’s when people will start to see just how much their premiums are set to skyrocket because insurers aren’t confident Democrats and Republicans will reach a deal to extend enhanced tax credits before they expire at the end of the year — a central point of conflict amid the partisan shutdown impasse.
Our founders intended for us to have a very limited federal government.
But instead we have the largest government in the entire history of the planet.
In the weeks ahead, millions of people will be clamoring for their government benefits.
If they do not get them, they will become very, very angry.
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