We’re here to celebrate eats and drinks, but the governments in D.C. and Austin are making it really hard to do anything other than seethe with rage — at them and at the Dem pols who let this nonsense happen.
Harming people, especially racial minorities and the impoverished, is KKKonservatives’ point. Nothing else explains why the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is yanking $500 million in already earmarked food assistance nationwide. The Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) is now down $1.9 million in funding, an amount equal to 1.3 million meals, plus 39 truckloads of food headed toward TAFB’s Fort Worth warehouse have been canceled. 2.5 million meals, or $4.2 million, have been snatched from the food bank by the federal government. Local seniors and children will be hit the hardest. Black and brown seniors and kids.
Along with requesting cash donations, the food bank is throwing its support behind a “strong” Farm Bill … in September, by which point, our democracy may be completely gone, its demise told in hundreds of thousands if not millions of Black and brown deaths or displacements. It’s incredibly sad. Food banks’ answer to being kneecapped by the feds is to petition lawmakers to let poor, hungry people grow their own food. This is not first-world democratic behavior. It’s autocratic barbarism based on hatred for the mere existence of Black and brown people. If you support the dismantling of the federal government when you know federal programs help Blacks and browns the most, then you might be a racist. And you should be called out for it. Let that stink hang around your neck for all eternity.
“Despite these challenges,” the food bank says it “remains steadfast in its commitment to securing more food and ensuring families in need continue receiving support.”
Photo by Abeeku Yankah
Food banks aren’t the only ones suffering during our transition from an OK democracy to a totalitarian state. Texans seeking a little pain relief are in for a world of hurt once the state bans THC in edibles and drinks. And there’s a really good chance that’s going to happen.
Nobody asked for this. Absolutely nobody. Yet Lt. Gov. and Head Bathroom Shark Dan Patrick has made policing our bodies his No. 1 priority. If it comes in, goes out of, or hangs on your corporeal vessel, Patrick wants to know about it.
Though the House is still working on its proposal, the Texas Senate recently passed a state ban on THC. Gummies, seltzers, vapes, all manner of THC-infused stuff sold at more than 8,300 locations statewide as part of an industry that employs more than 50,000 Texans and is forecasted to generate billions in local tax dollars over the next few years — all gone because Patrick knows what’s best for us.
Mark Bordas, executive director of the Texas Hemp Business Council, told the Texas Tribune that he feels “cooler heads will prevail” in the House. Their bill would not kill the TCH industry, merely curtail it by imposing stricter oversight, such as restricting sales to people 21 or older, requiring tamper-proof packaging, and keeping retailers far from schools. The House and Senate would have to reconcile their differences before the proposed legislation would become law.
And the hemp industry seems to have faith in the House — though why anyone would believe a non-hateful word from a Republicans’ mouth is beyond me. The police chief in Allen is going around saying Allenites are overdosing on THC, which is a lie. THC is lots of things, but it’s not a killer. I’m a big fan of Stigma’s THC-infused seltzers that I buy at the Total Wine & More by my house, and I’m stocking up on them because I know — we all know — the Republicans in the Republican-controlled House are going to Republican all over House Bill 28 because they think they’ve been given some sort of mandate. They haven’t. We sane Texans have just been gerrymandered out of relevance. Look at nearly every poll, statewide and national, on nearly every important issue. What we want almost never aligns with the legislation we’re given. Republicans in Austin and D.C. do not represent us. They represent their billionaire donors and their backward base.
One thing Republicans do well, and that’s help their own, namely billionaire donors. The feds are proposing more than $230 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, through 2034. Harming the least among us, harming poor Blacks and browns, is the endgame. The stricter work requirements, restrictions on categorical eligibility, and adjustments to utility cost calculations embedded in DOGE’s SNAP proposals may end up killing seniors and others with variable incomes, based on analyses by advocacy groups. All this austerity rooted in racism is simply retribution for daring to teach Black children American history. And for electing a Black man president.
Just like the players, ballpark chefs try to outdo one another, and the Rangers’ are swinging for the fences. Read about it in our Globe Life Food article in Stuff.
