DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Why the Dems?

There is a lot of resistance to the Republicans and it is discussed in dozens of threads. I'd rather hear from those so opposed to the Republicans or President to tell me why the Dems/Socialists are so attractive? What policies do you see as being of great benefit to America? I hear a lot of complaining and general comments about affordability etc, but I must be missing the policies they propose to fix things.

Off the cuff and on my phone.... But.

Not start wars.
Not remove other heads of state.
Foster closer relations with our western allies.
Treat Putin like the threat he is, instead of rolling out the red carpet for him and inviting him to summits he's not wanted at by everyone else.
Acknowledge the risks of AI.
Acknowledge the risk of climate change.
Stop artificially propping up dying industry like Coal. If you believe in the free market then let it play out.
Protect the environment.
Stop looking like an ass clown renaming things and geography.
Uphold law and order and not use the DoJ like a hitman.
Uphold the constitution and respect Congress and the Senate.


Listen to Jon Ossoff..... He's how I want my president to sound like.

Are the democrats perfect? Hell no. Do they have all the answers? No. But it's a choice.... Nice of you to try to not include what Trump has and is doing... But that is definitely part of the discussion and comparison.

Oh, I can include it. I am more interersted in what platform and policies have the Dems proposed. You mention a lot of generic things but I don't want your opinion. I want to see what programs are being proposed. What are the Dems proposing to fulfill some of the things you mention?

The President as an example implemented no tax on tips and overtime for working people. Not a Dem, including your John Ossof voted for that so when you say the Dems are for working people, I'd say you are full of crap, or at least they are. Is reducing the tax on the working class a bad thing? You might like the way Ossof sounds, but he sure doesn't support working people. You support that?

For those of you with young children, have you them signed up for their Trump account? Free money and a way to get your child/grandchild started with owning a piece of the American dream. Everybody should be invested in America.

LOL - can't do a national health service like every other industrialized nation on the planet !!! Because "Nothing is free" ... but here you are comrade - promoting wealth redistribution on a different topic. Welcome to the dark side.

If you actually looked at the details you would find this entire "no tax on tips and overtime" isn't what it claims to be in the first place. And the things he isted are not "generic things".

Federal Payroll Taxes Remain: According to Fidelity, tips and overtime are still subject to Social Security and Medicare (payroll) taxes, contrary to total tax exemption claims.

Deduction Caps Apply: The Bipartisan Policy Center notes that the tip deduction is capped at $25,000, and the overtime deduction is limited to $12,500 of qualifying premium pay.

State and Local Taxes Apply: As reported by PBS NewsHour, most states still tax tips and overtime income because state tax codes do not automatically mirror the federal deductions.

Income and Time Limits: The Economic Policy Institute highlights that these provisions are temporary (tax years 2025 through 2028) and phase out for higher income earners (above $150,000 single / $300,000 joint).

It is certainly helpful and cuts down on taxes paid in. But at the same time it's not as trump and now yourself advertise it being.

Our relations with long time allies has been destroyed. Not only based on trade but on the fact trump just rips up any agreement he doesn't like that has been established and still in effect. We are no longer trusted to keep our word and agreements as a nation around the globe. That fits into the category of generic to you?

The last three wars we have entered into were started by Republican presidents. Wars fit into the category of generic to you?

Several of the top tech executives themselves have told us that AI is moving too fast and needs to be slowed down. Actually some have even warned it could be responsible for killing a billion and in some estimations billions of people at its current pace. AI has actually been committing cyber attacks all on its own. AI has been going rogue. That fits into the category of generic to you?

None of this is trivial. None of this is generic. The reason there is no legislation to prevent so much of this nonsense is because nobody could have ever imagined people would elect a president that did some of this idiotic BS and break every norm this nation has established for generations.

Here is some legislation that's been proposed for you.

• Restore the Affordable Care Act and fight for national healthcare.
• Stop planned cuts to Medicaid.
• Repeal recent government tariffs.
• Pass new voting rights protections.
• Address immigration and federal tax rules.

While I understand there are those of you who label anything and everything that helps the average American as "socialist or communist" that's an old, outdated bunch of BS propaganda. Senator Joe McCarthy was using that back in the early 50's.

According to that every democratically run government on earth that has national healthcare are nothing but communist countries. It's hard for me to believe that even you think that is true.

Let's be clear here. Here is how capitalism works. Major corporations wield major buying power and get a huge cut on the products they purchase by purchasing in bulk. The more you buy the more influence you have in pricing with your buying power. That's capitalism #101. Yet when it is proposed that our government uses that very same principal to drive down healthcare costs for all Americans you label it communism. Here is a comparison between us and other developed nations....................

The United States spends the most on healthcare per capita among developed nations, reaching approximately $14,885 per person, which is more than double the OECD average.

• United States: $14,885
• Switzerland: $9,963
• Germany: $9,365
• Norway & Other Top Spenders: $9,300–$10,000 range
• OECD Average: Nearly $6,000
• Wealthy Country Average (Excluding U.S.): $7,371

On one hand we hear Republicans say one reason they voted for trump is because he is a "successful businessman".

Then in the next breath when you say if we used the bargaining power of every person living in The United States to greatly reduce the cost of all prescription drugs, medical tests and services, hospitalizations and surgeries we're a bunch of communists?

Then there's one thing I would like for you to explain. How can Republicans do what they claim in cutting the national debt when they cut taxes, which is the nations income, while they keep spending like a bunch of drunken sailors? That math has never added up yet your party keep selling it to the voters.

And the accounts are already set up for them... anyone under 18... all you have to do is claim and fund them.

Someone in the family recently adopted two "young-ins". We flooded the courthouse on adoption day. After the process, at dinner, anothther family member brought up the Trump accounts... you could hear a pin drop (mother's family hates Trump)... "no, we'll probably just start an IRA for them, it's the same thing". No, it's not, and you can't unless they're earning an income.

Oh well, they probably hate Trump too much to make sure their kids have 1-3 million at retirement.

This is an absolute gamechanger and will be one of Trump's biggest accomplishments (my opinion, of course). I've claimed my grandchildren's and am maxing them for the next two years.



I have no words.

There were already better options available than a trump account and still are. It's not a "game changer" by any means.............

While claiming the government’s $1,000 seed money for eligible children is a smart move, Trump Accounts (530A accounts) cap contributions at $5,000 annually and treat withdrawals as ordinary income, making other vehicles better for specific goals.

529 College Savings Plans

✅ Best for: Education and flexible family savings.

• Tax Advantage: Tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals for qualified education expenses.
• Contribution Limits: Much higher state-specific caps with no rigid $5,000 annual ceiling.
• Flexibility: Can roll up to $35,000 into a Roth IRA for the child or transfer funds to other family members.

Why it beats Trump Accounts: Superior tax perks and robust age-based diversified portfolios.

Custodial Roth IRA for Minors

✅ Best for: Long-term wealth and early retirement staging.

• Tax Advantage: Completely tax-free growth and tax-free qualified withdrawals.
• Requirement: The minor must have verifiable earned income (e.g., from a babysitting or formal job).
• Why it beats Trump Accounts: Earnings are entirely tax-free rather than taxed as ordinary income upon distribution.

⚖️ UGMA / UTMA Custodial Accounts

✅ Best for: Flexible major purchases before or at adulthood (first car, non-college expenses).

• Tax Advantage: Standard taxable brokerage, but first portions of unearned income enjoy minor tax brackets.
• Flexibility: Broad investment choices (individual stocks, mutual funds) with zero contribution limits.
• Why it beats Trump Accounts: No withdrawal lock-ups until age 18 or traditional retirement penalties.

But hey, I guess if having the name trump attached to it is more important to you, have at it.

(1) Unless my grandchildren are filing W-2s, driving forklifts, or running a registered lawn care corporation, putting money into a Roth IRA for them is called tax fraud.

(2) 529 is great if you want to force your kids into college. But if they choose to open a business, trade school, or learn a skill, that money faces hefty penalties. And that "generous" Roth IRA rollover? It's capped at a lifetime max of $35,000 and takes 15 years of account aging to even touch.

(3) Custodial brokerages hand 100% of the cash to the kid the day they turn 18 or 21. This isn't meant to be "toy" money or cash for year-long parties.


So, to summarize: Your 'better options' require me to either break tax law for a 5-year-old, force them into a college degree they might not want, or hand them a lump sum of cash right when their teenage brain is least equipped to handle it.


I’ll take the 55 years of tax-deferred compounding, and the legal right to invest for my family today. Many others can also claim the free $1000 seed capital, funded by the very people they hate most.

But hey, if being triggered by a name is more important to you than simple math, have at it. You've never been one for calculators anyway.

So on one hand if they are not "forced into college" it's "toy money"? Hmmmmm...

I calculate just fine. That seems like a rather rich statement for someone who hasn't been doing the math on this current administration for all this time now.

Clearly, you're confused.

Yeah that's it.

Dude, everything you said did NOTHING, and I mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, to show there were "already better options available" (your words) for saving for a child's retirement.

Now you want to scarecrow into "other things about Trump".

Are you ever embarrassed by constantly embarrassing yourself??

I think you should stop pretending that you have no idea what "early retirement staging" means. Also by ignoring that "Earnings are entirely tax-free rather than taxed as ordinary income upon distribution."

I'm amazed you aren't the one who is embarrassed but then such a concept is beyond some people.

Remember who you are interacting with.

Why don't you own up to your charades and tell us all which of the options you presented are better for saving for a child's retirement... and why?

No b.s., no "you see", nothing about Trump that has zilch to do with the subject.

Just an actual answer. For once.

I guarantee you can't. I guarantee you won't even attempt it without another b.s. scarecrow.

I am still not seeing what the Dems plan to do. It's turn it around on "Trump".

Typical crap from the same people.

Same old sad story. I want free health care; I want free college education; I want a handout. Work for it!!! Why should the lazy get perks of what the hard-working people worked so hard for? Does not make sense.

How about getting rid of Trump Tariffs?
How about ending the war with Iran?
Seems like two things self imposed by trump making everything substantially more expensive.

The tariffs would be easy to reverse.
However because of trump's team's incompetence the Trump War will be significantly more difficult

Once again you have no intention on being a part of the discussion and only came here to attack me. Seek help arch. Your obsession with me is borderline psychotic. Do better.

My mistake FATE. I thought there was no penalty for rolling a 529 account over to a UGMA / UTMA Custodial Account. That is incorrect. It was my understanding you could take the 529 college fund and roll it over into a UGMA / UTMA Custodial Account if or when you came to the understanding that a child would net be going to college. Or as you put it you didn't want to "force a child into going to college". lol

But that was wrong.

Try reading this slowly. Nobody is proposing "free healthcare". There is no such thing. What people are proposing is that the federal government be the negotiator for all healthcare services and prescription drugs. The very model you and so may others promote that business uses. Maybe if you paid attention to that reality rather than keep repeating the company line you would understand.....

Let's be clear here. Here is how capitalism works. Major corporations wield major buying power and get a huge cut on the products they purchase by purchasing in bulk. The more you buy the more influence you have in pricing with your buying power. That's capitalism #101. Yet when it is proposed that our government uses that very same principal to drive down healthcare costs for all Americans you label it communism. Here is a comparison between us and other developed nations....................

The United States spends the most on healthcare per capita among developed nations, reaching approximately $14,885 per person, which is more than double the OECD average.

• United States: $14,885
• Switzerland: $9,963
• Germany: $9,365
• Norway & Other Top Spenders: $9,300–$10,000 range
• OECD Average: Nearly $6,000
• Wealthy Country Average (Excluding U.S.): $7,371

On one hand we hear Republicans say one reason they voted for trump is because he is a "successful businessman".

Then in the next breath when you say if we used the bargaining power of every person living in The United States to greatly reduce the cost of all prescription drugs, medical tests and services, hospitalizations and surgeries we're a bunch of communists?

In doing so when looking at the model most of the developed world uses it would on average cut the cost of our healthcare per person in half.

And no we're not that #1 in healthcare. we rank 33rd and behind some of the very nations on the list above.

Why should we require 1 person to provide them money so another person can reap the benefits? Simple scenario. I keep what I make, and you keep what you make. Keep the government out of my pockets. I can make much better decisions with my money than the government.

Because less would be "coming out of your pockets". Even if you had private healthcare insurance if the government negotiated all of these costs down healthcare would cost you less. I'm not sure what you are missing about cutting the costs of healthcare in half you are missing.

You are paying insurance premiums, co pays and your part of prescription drugs for you and you family. All of these costs are already "coming out of your pocket". Those would go away. It seems to me your issue is not about paying less for your healthcare. It's about who you are paying it to.


I really have no idea what you're talking about.

Millions upon millions of children receive medicaid in this country. Millions upon millions of senior citizens on social security receive medicaid on top of their medicare. An estimated 9 million adults working full-time (35 hours or more per week) receive Medicaid due to wages being so low.

Who do you think is paying for that now?

Cry me a river!!! If able bodied people would work these problems, go away.

All good, Pit. The whole menu of options is very confusing. I honestly think the confusion is what drives people away from a lot of these investment vehicles. In many cases, it drives them straight into excuses; which they regret later.

This (to me) is a no-brainer. The rules are simple and it's a great way to start teaching young minds the value of saving.

This is funded through 2028 (the "free money" from donors part), hopefully that can continue in perpetuity. Even if nobody funded another dime to the account, this would be about 400k at retirement.

Grandparents: YOU can claim the account and fund it for your grandchildren. YOU can max it out at 5K per year. If you know you'll be moving any kind of wealth downward, this is also exempt from gift tax limits.

https://trumpaccounts.gov/

DoD... I think you're missing the point... you are already paying 15K per year to support a failing system.

That said, we as taxpayers already pay one of every 4 tax dollars for the healthcare of others. That's the very reason many people have a hard time with a government (mostly democrats) saying "hey, this would be a lot better if you just let us handle everything".

We have a broken system. It needs to be fixed. Maybe it's one area at a time. Trump and Cuban are helping to shatter the paradigm on prescription drugs. Vocal adversaries worked together to break monopolies and force people to compete. This will be Cuban's greatest legacy; he did all the work in starting costplusdrugs.com. He stuck a big, fat middle finger in the face of Big Pharma and said "the jig is up".

I would stand in line with my wallet open for anyone that had an actual plan to spread costs across hospital, pharma and taxpayers for "free" catastrophic health insurance. It's a mortal sin for people to lose everything because of a health event.

I will not open that wallet for anyone like Bernie Sanders that just screams "free healthcare for all" with no plan whatsoever.

People on Social security worked. Those 9 million people are working. Children are in school. Who did Jesus tell you to take healthcare away from?

But then again I suppose we could go back to the days before child labor laws and compulsory education by putting all those children to work and force all of those senior citizens back into the work force.

To a great extent I don't disagree with you. The concept is solid and makes perfect sense. The numbers speak for themselves. The execution of it on the other hand is sketchy at best as of now. I don't really care whose name is attached to it as long as the plan is well thought out and we get a clear picture of how said plan wold be executed and operated.

Able bodies that do not work should not get their health care paid by governmental means thru tax dollars of those that work. Now let's talk illegals coming here and getting health care paid by American workers. This is not a Jesus topic. Jesus said donate to the poor do not have governments rob workers to take care of the poor.

Jesus never said anything about how it should be paid for at all. He simply said you will be judged by how you treat them. I don't think denying them healthcare is treating them well. Our actions and beliefs are always tied into Jesus.

Talk about illegals? What countries did Jesus say people are from that they should be treated differently than anyone else? What about "welcome the stranger"? We have laws to deport people who are here illegally. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for traditional Medicaid, Medicare, or federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. You can stop with your straw man BS any time now. I know you would love to separate your religious beliefs from your political ones because many of the "Murica!" and "Freedumb!" beliefs are so very unchristian like. That's not the way any of this works.

So if the taxpayers shouldn't pay for their healthcare what do you propose? Letting people die in the streets? A decent person wouldn't even promote denying a dog get medical help when needed. What would Jesus do?

How about go back to their own country where they belong. If they want to come here, do it legally. Then they can get a job and work for their health care.

Do you even bother to read anything before you reply?

I am always hesitant to enter these discussions, especially when questions appear loaded and the discussions in this forum often produce no productive results. That being said, I think it is important to reframe the current context.

This is the original question you asked:


They are not attractive. Nobody is attractive. It has been that way for a long time. My whole voting existence has pretty much been between the lesser of two evils. I do take exception to the binary concept that it is one or the other. We really must escape that system. There is no shortage of people who conform their beliefs to fall in line with a certain party, rather than the other way around. That dynamic has absolutely crippled us as a nation going back decades in the election cycles.

The issue, though, becomes people's needs to escape the "unattractiveness" of what we are currently witnessing. I imagine you felt very similarly during '21 to '24. You cannot simply exclude the performance of the administration in power when deciding on a replacement. To create a Browns metaphor - if your head coach is 1-31, you want to get rid of him before he finds a fax machine to make trades and you sure as hell don't want to promote people on his staff who thought he did a great job while being a part of 1-31. That factors into your decision making.

One thing I do think we need to escape is the binary nature of our politics, which I think the creation of this thread focuses on. It is one or the other. People feel a need to paint with a broad brush or fall in line with a party ideal and/or write off the other side simply because there is an R or a D after the name. I believe that dynamic of looking at the party first has truly done irreparable harm to us as a nation. Throw rage bait algorithms on top of that as reinforcement, and you land with the current mess that we have collectively become.

For my part, this is my alternative approach: I create a grading rubric from which I view candidates. The rubric is a hierarchy of priorities that I think are urgent. These priorities morph over time depending on what I think the urgencies of the nation are. I line up those priorities and then compare them to the candidate platforms and decide on the candidate who most closely advocates for what I believe is important, regardless of party. Like I mentioned, the candidates have become so poor that I am often choosing a candidate that grades out as a D vs a candidate that grades out as an F.

To directly answer your question regarding policies, I will go in order of what I think is most urgent for us:

1. Anti-corruption, campaign reform, and money in politics. If I had a list of 10 priorities, this would be 1-9. Until we get this, there really are no other policies or platforms. Why? Because candidates will Trojan horse their way in. They will campaign on platforms they have no intention of fulfilling, just to make it through the door, before doing whatever they will. Current POTUS certainly has gone the opposite of his campaign platforms and the previous POTUS failed on some of his as well. We really require a constitutional amendment on this issue. Since Citizens United, PAC money has exploded from $574M to raising over $8B (feel free to check me on that) to influence elections. Candidates spend more time campaigning and are more beholden to special interests than ever before. Insider trading has gone off the charts. Thomas Massie had $30+M thrown against him in his Kentucky district from people who have absolutely zero interest or connection to his district. That is simply wrong. Unless I am mistaken, most of the push for an anti-corruption amendment has been on the Democrat side. Hat tips to Bill Cassidy and Thom Tillis for crossing those lines, but I believe both are lame ducks. Limiting the corruption of our politicians though is the absolute most urgent priority.

2. Spending/Debt/Deficit. I have often complained about this before, but it bothers me greatly that we have septuagenarians, octogenarians, and even a senator in his 90's discussing the financial fate of our country's future. For decades, I've been lectured about how millennials need to be financially savvy and how we shouldn't "take what is not ours" while watching legacy politicians borrow against future generations with impunity, all before they kick the bucket with no consequences.
We have spent the last fifty years or so living with social benefits while also enjoying low tax burdens, especially in comparison to how they were during the Eisenhower administration. That combination has led us to an insane amount of debt with deficits that have been unconscionable. This is also an historic failure on the part of both parties.

The bottom line is that I am given the choice between one party that wants to raise revenue and raise spending vs a party that wants to cut revenue and raise spending. As far as actual policies go, I am not a fan of the Trump accounts. As a traditional conservative, I believe Government spending should largely focus on three things: keeping your populace safe, healthy and well-educated. I’d prefer getting rid of tariffs and non-interventionist policies that allow me to naturally keep that money and invest it as I see fit. I find the $5,000 to be absolutely absurd. I also lived through DOGE, and calling that a joke would be offensive to jokes. That being said, I really don’t see anything promising from the Dems in terms of reining this in. Schumer is an old puppet and Jeffries is all platitudes and no substance. This is where I’m choosing between D- and F for most candidates.

I do think we need to rein in the power of the billionaires. I largely find myself at odds with the progressive caucus, but this is an area where I do align with them. Yes, I am a traditional conservative, but this problem has festered for so long. Their power has become so immense that they are rising to the level of getting de facto government positions and self-dealing with Government contracts. It is also simply wrong for Walmart to earn so much substantial revenue while paying its employees so little that it essentially socializes their benefits to the taxpayers (via SNAP, Medicaid, etc.). Jeff Bezos getting to essentially rent out the entire city of Venice for his second marriage while many of his warehouse workers rely on social programs is also wrong. I firmly believe that you should be rewarded for hard work and innovation, but we are reaching fever pitch extremes here. Billionaires are no longer being rewarded for the fruits of their labor, but just making gobs of money based on…their money itself. I do think this problem can be solved with an amendment that I listed in number 1 above.

3. Restoration of our institutions and federal employees. Our institutions have come under attack. Yes, I do think there were people who were bad actors that opened up certain institutions as prime targets, but that was used as a broad brush excuse to absolutely gut things. The elimination of USAID, who just so happened to be investigating a certain high-dollar political donor, was wrong. I think we need to restore faith in institutions and federal employees alike. I understand that this is more personal to me, but you asked what my priorities are, so I am answering.

When FY25 ended, my organization explored our metrics and realized that we were saving $300 in negotiations for every $1 we were paid in salary. That is a good return on investment. Via DOGE/RIFs, my branch was reduced to 57% of our previous capacity in FY26, and certain changes took arrows out of our quiver to successfully negotiate. Banning cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts, raising the TINA threshold to $10M, and starting a war after significantly RIFing DoD employees was the embodiment of ready, fire aim.
There is a lot of greed and a lot of war profiteering. The war profiteers are also in power, but nobody knows about them. If you’re curious, check out Steven Feinberg. They are defanging my ability to negotiate strongly so that I am forced to spend more of YOUR money. It is all behind the scenes too and gets very little attention. That has to stop.

We federal employees were attacked by POTUS for working two jobs and ironically for playing golf when we should be working, which was not remotely true. On top of that, we were given a 1% raise, RIF’d last year, and look to receive absolutely no raise in 2027 while our health insurance premiums are rising 11%. We often have to work without soap in the bathrooms or toilet paper either because of “budget cuts” with people needing to bring in their own. Many of you remember that saga. I simply cannot keep going on this way. The guise of needing to save money by eliminating us was also fake. DOGE employees admitted their efforts to reduce the deficit did not work. Also, looking to rein in spending by eliminating departments/employees is only focusing on 4% of federal spending, not the 70% that is social security, healthcare and defense.

The biggest problem for us is that we do not have a voice. There is no “federal employee” lobby or PAC out there that fights for us. So we have become victims of special interests who see us as a road block to them siphoning off that sweet, sweet government money. There has been an inaccurate picture painted of us as DMV bureaucrats, but we are more than that. We are lawyers who negotiate to keep troops safe and well-equipped while saving your money. We are air traffic controllers. We are law enforcement officers, we are IRS employees going after tax loopholes and people who hide money. We are food safety inspectors. On this front, the only advocacy we currently have is from the Dems. Even if it is platitude driven, it is still better than the alternative.
4. Healthcare. I have already had a very long post, so I won’t go into it. Basically, even a so-so plan or a bad plan is still better than no plan. All I am seeing on this front from one side is “concepts of a plan” for over a decade vs something that barely helps at all. Again, choosing the D- over the F.

There are more, too, but I wanted to put that out there. In applying that rubric I decide on candidates. For instance, Josh Turek out of Iowa (obviously outside my voting area) is in favor of a lot of what I asked for, while also being pro-2nd amendment and pro secure border. Sign me up. Brian Fitzpatrick is another candidate I generally like. Both of them are on opposite sides but generally grade higher in my rubric than their alternatives. Fix priority number one, though, if we want to have any hope in our future. As it stands right now, it is pretty lopsided on that front from what I can tell.

Great post.

Your points 1 and 2 are hard for anyone willing to have an honest discussion to refute.

Sadly I think the powers that be have us plebs exactly where they want us - folks would rather spam random tweets and "news" about the extreme idiots on the other side of their political perspective than have a meaningful debate or try to hold 'their politicians' accountable. Both sides do this. The result is what we see here. Dawgtalkers is a as a microcosm of the larger issue.

Thanks for the input.

It seems that campaign reform from a spending standpoint and reigning in billionaires are pretty much the same. No doubt having several $billion allows more access and influence over say 10,000 people who don't have all that much money. I don't disagree with the thought except that the person with the gold has always set the rules. I am not saying that is how it should be, I just don't think that can be changed unless one takes the communist route and very few have a chance at accumulating money. I find it odd that Sanders harps about the oligarchy yet promotes a system that is nothing but oligarchy. It's nothing but friends of the state.

That actually reminds me of a big point I forgot yesterday in my grading rubric: 5. We need to enforce antitrust and combat anti-competitive practices. For too long, consumer power and protection has been eroded. Product and service quality has been greatly reduced. That is because the emphasis has been shareholder focus and not end user focused. Things like planned obsolescence, private equity, and overall "encrapification" (I can't use the real word) have taken over. That is in large part due to anti-competitive practices. Look at defense contractors for one. They consolidated down to five. You would be hard pressed to find a major weapons system platform that hasn't exploded in price while also reduced in the quality of the product while missing delivery timelines. The problem is that there is nowhere else to go. I am a big believer in capitalism, but we have gone to such a far extreme of enabling poor behavior at the expense of the consumer that now we find ourselves in a gouge-a-thon. Companies are utilizing AI, and other algorithmic software to employ dynamic pricing. The price isn't being pushed down because of competition, it is being pushed upward because of supply side emphasis and lack of options.

I don't say this pointedly, but genuinely. I do not get the repeated communist notion. The abolishment of all personal and private property? I think there is ample evidence with the amount of billionaires and corporate conglomerates controlling things - as you seem to agree with - that I think we are so far in the opposite direction. I think the proverbial frog has been boiling for decades now to the point where any notion of pushing back in the other direction is deemed socialism/communism/marxism. If anything, I think that we are closer to a second coming of the Gilded Age. Look at the direct comparison of class disparity, monopolistic/oligarchic behavior, and eroding consumer and worker rights.

I do push back on the notion that the people with the money control everything. You had politicians on both ends of the spectrum (both Roosevelts for example) that implemented trust-busting and economic changes to the betterment of creating a healthy middle class. Standard Oil was broken up. Workers were given rights. Companies were beholden to standards that benefitted the consumer and fomented greater competition in a healthy, capitalist market. I think the issue this time around is that the wealthy now realize they can control the messaging. Musk bought Twitter, Ellison owns a media conglomerate, Bezos bought WaPo, Zuck is expanding Meta's control. That being said, I am encouraged by a growing number of politicians - mostly on the left (to circle back to the title of this thread) - that are not taking corporate PAC money.

I don't know when we will hit the point where people are looking at what politicians are saying and how it does not match their own personal bottom line, but I hope that we are close. Once people no longer offer themselves as a given to the party they have stuck with for life, we can achieve real, meaningful change. That also requires us to stop focusing on slinging mud at people who are in the same situation. I do truly believe it's not left vs right, but top vs bottom.

I've always said it's those at the top verses everyone else. My dad brought that point home to me when I was very young and it's worse today than it's ever been in my lifetime.

As long as those at the top can keep those below them divided there's no chance for true change. As long as they can keep the common man believing that other common men are their enemy they will always be in control.

I am in 100% agreement with you about things for common people going backwards. After decades of fighting for workers rights, the break up of monopolies and spreading power to the people, we have been moving backwards. I am in agreement that we have had leaders in the past who have pushed for and accomplished making the lives of those with less better. It doesn't seem like that's a top priority for government anymore. As much as some place a negative label on it, the very purpose of government is to "represent its people" and make the lives of its people better. Not set up rules and laws to represent the top 1% have even more of an advantage.

And it seems anyone fighting for a more even playing field for all is labeled as a communist. Since the Citizens United ruling there's even more room for corporations to influence elections and control the power structure.

Sadly in the early 30's it took a total collapse of our economy for the average American to fight back through the power of their votes. That's the extreme it took for people to see what was going on around them. As a result we found out that a strong middle class made for a strong economy.

We are starting to see that same energy among voters. We are starting to see a push back to once again reform a broken system being manipulated by a select few. That's what always happens when the pendulum swings too far in one direction. And it most certainly has.

I just hope that we don't have to go through the same fate the generation of the 30's had to go through before people wake up and realize what's happening in large enough numbers to change it before hand.

Thanks. Like I said some time ago, there are no meaningful discussions anymore. I don't expect much response to what I said, but I thought it a good opportunity to homogenize my thoughts into one place when I read the question set forth here. But I certainly do not expect much discussion.

As you can see, it's far easier to press the rage bait dopamine button and spam a thread about something stupid POTUS said a few days ago than it is to actually have a policy back-and-forth. I used to allow myself to get caught up in that, which was dumb on my part. All I realized I can do now is chime in occasionally when there might be room for it, make sure I advocate for issues most important to me, and make sure I never miss a vote. Anytime I see a politician who advocates for my priority number one, you can bet like hell I'll do my part to make sure they get elected. That occupies almost my entire political focus at this juncture.

Some of us don't believe that posting the actions and words of a demagogue who is leading this nation are trivial or undeserving of attention. Much of his "policies, beliefs and agenda" are contained there in. Reporting such things is not a form of rage but a form of displaying the way we are devolving as a nation. Look at the impact he has had on your own life and then explain how and why we should ignore the things he says and does?

Never said it shouldn't be posted, Pit. Everyone should be aware. I think he's done immense harm on top of being a genuinely horrible and vindictive person. What he said was awful. He'll continue to say awful things. We've probably forgotten more awful things he's said and done than we've remembered.

I talked about spamming, though. Me spending tons of bandwidth going after Memphis, who has me on Ignore, or rolling in the mud with FATE ain't gonna change anything. But that's where almost all of our attention goes because of the rage bait. If there are discussions like this thread that happen, I wouldn't mind sharing my view, as I did. But I ain't touching that other stuff anymore. I need to focus on putting whatever little energy I have left where it counts.

I'm tired. I need to save my energy for the midterms and the areas where I can actually effect change.

Other than invoking my name or putting quotation marks around phrases I've used in the past with some passive-aggressive b.s... or pull random quotes I made six months earlier... every time you come here.

Or insults:

While you show up in your holier-than-thou cosplay.


The last two times you put your tail between your legs and quit; you've basically blamed me. That's why I quit responding. Now it's some p/a "nobody will respond to this" while you wallow away in martyr mode about how unfair everything is and nobody has any real desire to discuss it.

Does it really make any sense to come here and complain about how bad it sucks once a month?

If so, don't cry about "rage-bait" when you always show up with a bucket-full. Dish it out, you get it back; that's how the world works.


And while you're so fond of always repeating "rolling in the mud with FATE"; just realize: pigs don't know pigs stink.


Hope you've had a great summer!

I understand the point you're making here. And I saw what a response as you described looks like even since you posted that. I'm as guilty for rolling in the mud as anyone else here is. The only difference I see is I don't get all butt hurt by it and lash out when someone tells me about it. Unless of course they're just as guilty of it as I am. I'm not saying you never take a poke at anyone but not to the extent many do. The funny part about it is, some of the very same people who are rolling in the mud are the very same people who put others on ignore. Funny how that works.

Hope you post more. Although it seems not everyone appreciates it, your posts have more constructive dialogue and address actual issues than anyone elses on here. Something you were right about. For the most part all of that content was ignored.

Something I know all about. The main function of many here is to ignore all posts that identify what's going on until they can find that rare occasion they can find a nit to pick. And then pick it they will.

Awwwe, see... Pit got your back!

And he spams all the good stuff. All the important stuff that everyone needs to see!

I was wondering how long it would take before your #triggered #snowflake side showed up again after my post. You never fail to deliver.

Thanks Fate. I hope you had a great summer, too.

It does take two to roll in the mud, wasn't just blaming you. You weren't the only one who was responsible. I never absolved myself for doing it. I even said it was dumb on my part. I think I let the best of my struggles during this admin get the best of me at times. I think it took my time away to realize that I was part of perpetuating the problem. Who I have become as part of this administration and who I have become when I more regularly give into the own rage bait that I protest against in this forum is not truly indicative of who I am, so I think it's best for me to limit myself, and that's what I think it comes down to.

I started coming around after P told me about GM's passing and how much he united everybody on here and it got me to self-reflecting. I think most of the rage I experience comes from valid qualms I have toward the admin, but I can't let it consume me as it did. I poured my frustration in my work and everyday life into this forum during the hellscape that 2025 become and I probably unnecessarily took it out on you, and I apologize for that.

I hope you're doing well.

Hey Memphis,

I know you don't read my posts, but I wanted to put this here anyway. It probably does appear that I rage quit. I think I gave reasons as to why I took time off in my last post, but I do have to say, it becomes difficult to perpetuate a dialogue with someone who does have you on Ignore. I did commence my hiatus during the Charlie Kirk discussion when I did make an earest attempt to bridge the divide and felt I got burned for it. That's where my reference that discussions are dead is born from. That's pretty much why I had given up on it.

Like I said in that thread, whatever I did to make you ignore me, I apologize. You and I used to get along pretty well on here before all the craziness. If you ever do want to go back and engage in actual policy discussion, or just shoot the breeze, I'll still check in from time to time. Anyhow, hope you do well and that the Crosstown Shootout this year still favors the Muskies

No real time for an in-depth post right now, but thanks. And sorry for overreacting. Seems like a lot of you recent posts were meant to poke and prod; that's probably just me. And definitely my fault for just ignoring for months and then unloading.

There's a lot of good substance in your posts (always). Some I agree with, some not so much. Substance is a breath of fresh air though. And truthfully, I feel like we've seen a lot more from everyone here, even my "adversaries". Both Pit and Mgh have penned some good stuff lately.

Hindsight can be a bitch, especially when the time has passed for any more foresight. GM was a humble man that just called it like he saw it and never stomped all over the opinions of others. P was right. Maybe we all need to take a breath, or whatever we need, to be a bit more like him. And trust me, by "we", I mean me. I'll try harder.

Great posts guys.
Kudos to both of you.

Is this what you voted for?

Hunger grips a rural community hit by Trump’s cuts
Those on the front lines of feeding their neighbors in West Virginia’s coal country say they face unprecedented challenges brought on by Washington.



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Oct. 9, 2026, 5:00 AM EDT
By Shannon Pettypiece
DUNLOW, W.Va. — Bill Likens stared down a half-mile-long line of cars that started forming before the sun came up over the Appalachian Mountains. He had one job: figure out how to feed them all.

Some had driven more than 30 miles in aging cars and trucks that wheezed down flood-prone roads through the steep hills. They sat silently as the temperature rose into the 80s, their vehicles turned off with no air conditioning to preserve gas, waiting hours for a few boxes of food.

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Aided by a cane, Likens, 51, surveyed the pallets being unloaded off a semitruck that arrived that morning. He counted cartons of eggs and sacks of potatoes to calculate how much each waiting car could get — an algorithm of hunger he is constantly trying to solve.


A line of cars wait to receive donated food during a weekly drive up food pantry at Dunlow Community Center
The line of vehicles started forming early in the morning at a drive-up food distribution in Dunlow, W.Va., on Sept. 16.Mike Belleme for NBC News
“There’s a decent chance we could run out,” said Likens, who runs the food pantry in Dunlow as director of community outreach for Cabwaylingo Presbyterian Chapel, a small brick church he attended growing up.

“I don’t want them to sit in that line and not get anything,” he said. “But I don’t have a lot of extra food these days.”

Increasingly, the job of feeding the nation’s hungry is falling on the shoulders of everyday Americans like Likens, who have become the last bulwark against hunger in a land of plenty.

Likens and others on the front lines of feeding their neighbors say they face unprecedented challenges brought on by Washington. Food distribution programs are getting less food from federal programs to feed the hungry after cuts by the Trump administration. At the same time, restrictions on food stamps from the Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” have driven up demand, while rising gas prices because of the Iran war have cut into the budgets of households and food banks alike.

Bill Likens, director of community outreach for Cabwaylingo Presbyterian Chapel, grew up hungry in Dunlow. Now he works to make sure that doesn't happen to other kids. Mike Belleme for NBC News
The challenges extend far beyond Appalachia. An NBC News survey of 48 of the largest food banks across 35 states and Washington, D.C., found that nearly three-quarters said more people are showing up at their doors over the past year, from workers on their lunch breaks to older adults overwhelmed with medical expenses. At the same time, more than 80% said the food and funding they received through the U.S. Department of Agriculture had dropped and they were struggling with higher fuel costs for transporting food.

In Maine, Good Shepherd Food Bank said the USDA cut the amount of food it received from 13 million pounds to 9 million pounds in one year. A Michigan food bank, Forgotten Harvest, said it’s handing out less food to make sure there is enough to go around: one bag of potatoes instead of two, two tubs of yogurt as opposed to six.

“People are facing multiple hits to their budgets,” said Poonam Gupta, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, a think tank that researches social and economic issues. “It is really difficult to find a way to continue affording a healthy and nutritious and balanced diet when you just have these constant hits.”

Food banks’ struggles started in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term when officials cut a $400 million Covid-era program to supply food banks with food from local farmers and paused an estimated $500 million in other planned food purchases by the USDA. Funding from Congress for a separate decades-old program to supply food banks with emergency food assistance has increased over the past several years, but many food bank leaders said they’re still getting less overall than during the Biden administration.

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Trump also signed into law the new restrictions on who can receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps, requiring nearly all able-bodied adults not caring for young children to work, volunteer or go to school at least 80 hours a month. Since the law was enacted, more than 5 million people, including at least 1 million children, have lost their food benefits.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly defended the administration’s policies, saying Trump is “uplifting every American’s financial situation” through tax cuts and efforts to increase jobs and business investments.

“President Trump is strengthening SNAP for the Americans who need it by ensuring these programs are sustainable for future generations,” Kelly said, including measures to “crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.”


Volunteers load bottled water and potatoes into a truck bed at the food distribution in Dunlow. People sat waiting in their cars for more than three hours to receive food. Mike Belleme for NBC News
A mix of staff and volunteers distribute donated food
The food pantry estimated there were two households per vehicle, with many people driving together to save on gas. Mike Belleme for NBC News
The USDA said it hasn’t reduced the amount of food it provides.

“Every day, the Food and Nutrition Administration invests $340 million in low-income communities and people in need of nutrition assistance, including millions of school children, elderly, and the disabled,” a USDA spokesperson said. “The mission to help those in need has not changed.”

While those on the ground say they are thankful for everything they get, they are struggling to do more with less. Facing Hunger Foodbank, which supplies Likens’ pantry and others across Appalachia, has seen a 25% increase in the number of people seeking help over the past year, while the amount of food the federal government supplies has fallen by a third, CEO Cyndi Kirkhart said.

Those forces have hit especially hard in areas that were already struggling economically, like West Virginia’s once-flourishing coal mining communities. The spike in gas costs means a 45-minute drive to the nearest grocery store can set residents back more than $15. And West Virginians who must comply with the new work requirements to receive food benefits are confronting a lack of jobs and training programs. Since last summer, about 24,000 people, including 8,000 children, have lost food stamps, according to the West Virginia Department of Human Services.

“It’s like the pandemic on steroids without funds,” Kirkhart said. “I don’t believe the government needs to provide everything, but if you’re going to ask us to, please help.”


A mix of staff and volunteers distribute donated food
A volunteer at the Dunlow food distribution picks up a bag of carrots to place in a waiting vehicle.Mike Belleme for NBC News
Keeping neighbors fed
Likens learned the tricks of how to battle an aching emptiness in his stomach early in life. When he was 12, his father, a construction supervisor for a coal mine, was injured by a falling piece of equipment. Suddenly, his family of seven had to live off of just $350 a month in government assistance.

Growing up, there were days he ate only two meals, and he was never full. His mother often made biscuits and gravy because it was relatively filling. For the first week of the month, she had enough powdered milk to make the gravy. For the rest of the month, she mixed water, oil and a bit of flour. It had the appearance of gravy but not the flavor.

The family survived with help from the same church he works for today. He and his wife, Addie, whom he met playing in the middle school band, live in the church house he and his brothers helped build as teenagers to repay the church for the food it had provided.


A longtime staff member operates the forklift to unload food, most of it purchased by Facing Hunger Foodbank. Bill Likens, center right, directed the food into position for the waiting cars.
A longtime staff member operates the forklift to unload food, most of it purchased by Facing Hunger Foodbank. Bill Likens, center right, directed the food into position for the waiting cars.Mike Belleme for NBC News
In this corner of West Virginia, hunger is nothing new. For decades, the coal mining jobs that built many of the communities here have been leaving; the last mine near Dunlow closed more than a decade ago. Attracting new industries has been a struggle with little flat land, limited internet service and aging infrastructure. As the jobs left, so did many of the area’s younger residents, leaving a large population of seniors, including many raising grandchildren, who rely on Social Security as their only income.

Likens said making sure no one goes hungry in his hometown has never been harder. His pantry, which serves 700 to 800 households, has gotten 25% less food from the USDA over the past several years, he said. The amount varies month to month, making it difficult to plan. In August, he got just 2.5 pounds of food per household, compared with the 20 pounds he was getting monthly several years ago. Meat has become a rarity, replaced by items like dried beans, which can be difficult to cook with for those with disabilities or children preparing their own meals.

“This is the leanest we’ve been in the 23 years I’ve been doing this,” Likens said.

The USDA said it hasn’t changed the type of food it sends.

“States are responsible for ordering — based on supply and demand — and while no significant changes have been seen, the Trump administration has indeed prioritized increased purchases of fruits, vegetables, seafood and other proteins,” the spokesperson said.


Volunteers and staff members sort through a maze of boxes of donated goods inside the Dunlow Community Center.Mike Belleme for NBC News
Likens said he has become increasingly dependent on food donations from private companies and food purchased by Facing Hunger, the West Virginia food bank that supplies his pantry and others. Everything he can get helps, but it’s not always the most nutritious food: His pantry was recently lined with 5-foot-high pallets of donated Peeps and more than 100,000 packages of Mike and Ike candy from other nonprofits. Canned pork has become a food pantry delicacy.

“We need to recognize the fact that it does hurt people when we cut these programs that are so necessary,” Likens said.

Along with running the food pantry, Likens started a backpack meals program in which every child at the nearby schools gets a small shopping bag of food to take home on the weekends. Volunteers pack the 250 bags each week with things kids can easily fix for themselves — a box of mac and cheese, a cereal bar, a Cup Noodles.

“When I was a kid, this would have been my dream to have at home,” he said. “To be able to get a Chef Boyardee and a little juice.”

Disappointed in Washington
With the food for that day unloaded, Likens looked on as cars and trucks started slowly rolling through and an assembly line of volunteers began placing boxes in trunks and truck beds.

Among the offerings: a carton of eggs, half a gallon of milk, a 5-pound bag of potatoes, around five pieces of cooked chicken, a pack of Jimmy Dean turkey sausage and a bag of apples. Facing Hunger purchased nearly all of the food that day with the money it gets from private donations, state funding and grants. The only items that came from the USDA were packs of sliced Swiss cheese.

Inside a small SUV was Joanne Girvin, who waited her turn with her one-eyed Yorkshire terrier, Jasper, sitting on her lap.


Joanne Girvin and her dog, Jasper, sat in line for several hours for a few boxes of food. Rising gas prices have cut into her grocery budget.Mike Belleme for NBC News
Girvin, 73, used to own a restaurant nearby and is now living off Social Security, which is barely enough to cover her monthly bills. Already on a tight budget, she has no extra room for $4 gallons of gas or a rising electric bill. That has left one place to cut — her food.

She said she has lost 20 pounds over the past year because she has been eating less. The night before, she’d eaten canned deer meat left over from last fall’s hunting season with rice and gravy. Some nights she eats a bag of frozen broccoli with butter.

“Sometimes I just sit down and cry when I’m trying to figure out what you’re going to eat out of a can or something because you don’t have no meat,” Girvin said as her eyes welled with tears. “It’s just really bad, this economy. It’s horrible.”

Girvin has chickens in her backyard that she relies on for eggs, and this hunting season she and her husband plan to get more deer meat to feed themselves through the winter. When food is running low for her dog, she goes out and hunts a squirrel for him. For a bit of extra money, she sells some of her old belongings at flea markets.



Staff members and volunteers gave each car two cartons of eggs at the food distribution in Dunlow.Mike Belleme for NBC News
She said she doesn’t think those in Washington understand the struggle she and her neighbors face.

“We need help,” she said. “They just don’t know the half of it. They really don’t.”

It was a frustration echoed by others who showed up that morning in a state that Trump won in 2024 with 70% of the vote. While some supported Trump’s decision to attack Iran despite the higher gas prices and argued Republicans were an improvement over Democrats, others said Trump should be doing more to lower prices.

A few cars behind Girvin in line was Bonnie Newsome. She used to drive a school bus, but now, like Girvin, she’s struggling to afford groceries on her retirement income.

Asked whether she had a message for Trump, she said: “I love you, but I think you can do a better job than what you’re doing.”

Over the past year, she has been hit by a string of higher costs, including her electric bill, groceries and gas. With winter coming, she’s worried about affording propane to heat her house.

Bonnie Newsome, a retired school bus driver, said her Social Security check isn't enough to cover her bills and groceries.
Bonnie Newsome, a retired school bus driver, said her Social Security check isn't enough to cover her bills and groceries. Mike Belleme for NBC News
“I really thought President Trump would move right on in and take care of everything,” Newsome said. “He’s disappointed me, he has.”

Without help from Washington, she relies on people like Likens. She has known him since he was a child and she was driving the school bus.

“If it weren’t for this food pantry that Bill’s doing, we would be in trouble. We really would,” Newsome said. “I used to pick Bill up when he was a kid and drive him to school, and now he’s taking care of me.”

‘We stick together here’
About an hour away from Likens’ pantry, Donna Paterino was doing her own calculus of how to feed more mouths with less food. Her pantry, tucked in the back room of a firehouse, serves more than 200 households a month, twice as many as a year ago, while the quantity and quality of the food she’s getting from the USDA has declined, she said. The USDA deliveries are often less filling and difficult for seniors to cook with, like a recent influx of chickpeas.

“I live by faith and not by sight. But if I’m looking, I see a bunch of people in Washington who are out of touch,” Paterino said.


Donna Paterino runs the Widow's Mite Food Pantry in Matewan, W.Va.Mike Belleme for NBC News
Before she started Widow’s Mite Food Pantry 15 years ago in Matewan, a town made famous for a 1920s shootout between supporters of coal miners and representatives of the mine owners, Paterino, 60, worked for years at school cafeterias, where she saw the signs of hunger in her community.

Students, many being raised by grandparents, would quietly ask her for an extra portion at lunch; one told her all there was to eat at home was a bottle of ranch dressing; another was so thin her pants were held up by a rope.

Now, she said, the faces of those she’s serving have changed.

“My focus used to be just the seniors and grandparents raising grandchildren,” she said. “Now, I have just as many middle-class families who reach out and say: ‘Do you have anything left that I can use? Do you have any juice I can give the kids until Monday?’”

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Organizers of several food pantries pick up boxes of food delivered by Facing Hunger Foodbank in Williamson, W.Va.Mike Belleme for NBC News
A stack of food boxes for seniors sat outside Donna Paterino's trailer in Williamson. Paterino packed them up to hand out later that afternoon to local seniors.
A stack of food boxes for seniors sat outside Donna Paterino's trailer in Williamson. Paterino packed them up to hand out later that afternoon to local seniors.Mike Belleme for NBC News
To fill the gaps, Paterino is left scrambling for donations. Each week, she picks up cast-off food from a nearby Dollar General, which gives her items like milk a few days before its sell-by date or dozens of damaged boxes of cereal.

She recently got a call from the Dollar General store manager when one of its freezers went out, telling her to get there as soon as she could to collect the food, which included frozen burritos and Hot Pockets, before it defrosted. Within 20 minutes, in the pouring rain, she was there with a volunteer to load it up, and days later those items had helped 12 families get through the end of the month until their food stamp benefits rolled over.

Once her food leaves the pantry, she often sees it continue to trickle throughout the community — a senior will give their milk to a family with young kids, and a family will make a pot of soup for a neighbor.



Donna Paterino, left, gathers food for Mary Blackwell, right, at the Widow's Mite Food Pantry on Sept. 15.Mike Belleme for NBC News
In Mingo County, where Paterino runs her small pantry, 1 in 3 children live in poverty, and the population has declined by 9% since 2020. One in 7 working-age adults receive Social Security disability benefits because they are unable to work, a number driven up by injuries in the coal mines, like crushed spines and black lung disease.

“We have deficits here already with a lack of jobs, a lack of opportunities and being in a rural community,” Paterino said. “But what you don’t have other places that we do have is a camaraderie to help one another, neighbor helping neighbor.”

“We stick together here.”


Donna Paterino helps Mary Blackwell take food for her and her son's family to her vehicle at the Widow's Mite Food Pantry.Mike Belleme for NBC News
Down to the last box
The pallets of food were starting to shrink, and the end of the line still wasn’t in sight at Likens’ food pantry in Dunlow. He looked on nervously and tried to formulate a plan B to make sure everyone who came got something to eat. Inside his warehouse, he had some pre-packed bags for school kids he could hand out if needed.

When the last of about 200 vehicles had passed through around 1 p.m., Likens was left with eight half-gallon jugs of milk, two bags of potatoes, four bags of carrots, one carton of eggs, two bags of apples and a sizable amount of sliced Swiss cheese. He’d just made it.

A mix of staff and volunteers distribute donated food during a weekly drive up food pantry
Volunteers had just enough food for everyone who showed up at the food distribution in Dunlow.Mike Belleme for NBC News
Likens finally sat down to rest his leg, which was damaged a decade ago by bone cancer, and volunteers started moving the empty pallets and boxes inside. Then one more car pulled through. It was a worn van driven by an elderly man with a bandage around his arm from blood work and a woman with a young child in the back. A Bible sat on the dash.

“You got any food left?” the man shouted from his car window. They were coming from a doctor’s appointment and weren’t able to arrive earlier, he told Likens.

Likens headed back inside to see what he could round up for one last household to feed that day.

“We make sure everyone gets something.”
.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...s-food-stamps-gas-prices-iran-rcna601637