Allyson

Chris wants me to write about something else, but I just don’t have the words for it right now. I’ll get there… eventually. For the moment, SNAP and other food benefits seem to be the topic of the week, so I’m going to go with that.

So there are a lot of people doing a lot of things right now. There’s “rage bait” folks out filling carts with junk and claiming it’s with EBT. There are assholes who are scamming the system by making fraudulent claims. And then there’s honest, hard working people (and/or those who are disabled or otherwise unable to work) legitimately trying to make ends meet getting caught in the SNAP shut down, who are actually going to suffer. This last category is the only one that I actually care about.

Different states have different rules for SNAP. To my knowledge, all states have work requirements for eligibility. There are also new rules for ABAWD, or Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents, who are those between 18 and 54 who otherwise have no reason not to work. The ABAWD requirements do not apply to those who are not able bodied, or those who have children under 14. For the most part, I don’t have any issues with those rules, as written, with the sole exception of pregnant women. Pregnant women are considered “disabled” for ABAWD and work requirements for SNAP. This means that a woman who keeps herself continually pregnant is fully exempt from having to work in any way. Before anyone gets on my case, WIC takes care of pregnant and breastfeeding women, so they do not need a special exemption for this. IMO, of course.

The name SNAP means “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” The program, at its beginning, was meant to provide supplemental food for those who were working but not able to make ends meet. I know I’ve been there (though I’ve never been on SNAP). The important words here are “supplemental” (meaning “…provided in addition to what is already present or available to complete or enhance it.” – Oxford English Dictionary) and “assistance” (meaning, “…the provision of money, resources, or information to help someone.” – ibid). As most of us know, SNAP and the other helper programs were meant to be a hand up, not a hand out. They weren’t meant to be lived on, but instead were meant to help you get on your feet after something bad happened (death of a spouse or supporting guardian, loss of job/career, military families, etc.). That’s not what is happening now.

There are families who have been on SNAP and other benefit programs for generations. The reasons start out honest enough, with people being in low paying jobs and being unable to move or find better work, and going on from there. These generational problems are systemic. The current means of helping people doesn’t actually help them. It traps them.

At one point, I was a single mother. I left an abusive wusband, stayed in a women’s shelter until I could get to court, and eventually was given low income housing in a gated community and welfare to pay my bills. I had gone from being the breadwinner, when my wusband was staying at home with the kid, to being stuck at home for an undefined amount of time. I tried several times to get work. I WANTED to get work. I despised being on the dole. The problem was, the cheapest childcare I could get cost more than I would earn (as in, in its entirety… childcare was very expensive where I was living). I couldn’t get help paying for childcare, because a) if I could work, I obviously didn’t need help anymore and b) if I was at work, my wusband could take the kid. The fact that abuse was part of the pattern and an ongoing issue between us didn’t seem to matter. This is a social “help” trap. There’s no way to escape it without outside help, help which my father thankfully provided, at great cost I might add.

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I found this one on TikTok, and decided to try it!

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs, skin removed (bone in or out, doesn’t matter)
• 1.5 cups cherry tomatoes
• 3/4 cup green olives (no pimento)
• 1 shallot, sliced thinly
• 8 baby potatoes, quartered
• 8 to 10 whole cloves garlic
• 2 to 4 tbsp white wine (or white wine vinegar)
• 2 to 4 tbsp good quality olive oil
• 1 large sprig fresh rosemary, minced OR 2 tbsp dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp herbs de provence
• salt, to taste

Preheat your oven to 375°F.

In an oven-safe casserole dish with high sides, place your chicken thighs evenly in a single layer. Add the cherry tomatoes (whole) and olives (also whole) around the chicken. Add the shallot in a layer over everything, and the baby potatoes above the shallot. Tuck the garlic in between the potato pieces. Drizzle the wine and olive oil over everything, and then add your spices.

Bake your Poulet Provencal in the oven for 30 minutes, then check. Your chicken should register 165°F, and the potatoes should be ready to eat. If not, return the dish to the oven for 15 more minutes, checking every 5 minutes.

Serve with a side salad, or a nice crusty French bread. Your choice!

I run into things on TikTok and Facebook that are funny, sad, embarrassing, frustrating, and the whole gamut of other emotions. This one, though, hit home. It talks about something near and dear to my heart: going hungry. You can ask any of my friends, even at my poorest moments in the past 20 years, I have ALWAYS had a full fridge, freezer, and pantry. Always. If that meant I had to visit a food bank, so be it. I’ve been hungry before, and I never intend to be there again.

Take a pause and watch…

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Truth hurts.
“If we aren’t being taught how to grow our own food, how to take care of ourselves and our families, and how to live without the need for huge governments, banks, or corporations — as our ancestors once did — then we aren’t being educated; we are being indoctrinated to be dependent and subservient to the system.” ~ Gavin Nascimento

That is the original text (above) that came with the image to the left. Below is what I wrote.

I will continue to point this out until the cows come home. Our forefathers knew that giant government, whether by senators or King, could not sustain itself forever. Eventually you run out of money.

First, you run out of general money. We’ve already done that. Then you run out of spare money, the stuff you tucked away in case of emergencies. We’ve run out of that too. Then you run out of other people’s money to spend. Believe it or not, we’re past that as well. Until we stop spending money we don’t have, we will never get better.

I wish I had better words to explain this. To me, it’s just common sense. You look at the budget and you go. I don’t have enough money to get that thing. It doesn’t matter how much I want it, or even how much I need it. If the money is not there, you just don’t get it. That is what our government needs to do.

I think that Musk started it, but then so much of it got reversed that it’s like it never happened at all. I’m horribly disappointed by that. And now, everybody still wants to spend money. While I think the Democrats are doing more of it than the Republicans, the Republicans aren’t blameless either. We can’t afford any of it. We can’t afford to pay for the very basic things in our country right now.

Do we all want to be rats in a drowning ship? I don’t. I’d like to see the government shut down until every last penny has to be pinched so hard that it screams. I want to see all of the people in DC not getting paychecks, maybe not even when they are in office. Definitely not when they’re not working. I know that terrifies a lot of you. It scares me too. I have aches and pains that I need to address, and maybe they’re not as bad as some of my friends, but I think I at least get the general idea. Those safety nets are really important. The problem is that those safety nets are full of holes right now and they have been for decades. I’m pretty sure you all know that, because you don’t get the help that you probably need. Some of that is because of bad spending habits on the part of the government, a very tiny part of it might be part of bad spending habits on the part of people receiving money, but the biggest part is people who are defrauding the government. And while I do mean some people who are getting safety net help when they should not, I mean looking at every red cent that our government spends. I don’t want any money going to other countries until we have made sure that our people are safe.

Some people might think that it’s horrible that I would say that, but I’m much more interested in seeing my disabled friends getting the help that they need without having to not get married or pretend or whatever. I just want them to be able to get help. And as long as there’s money going to people from other countries, whether it’s vasectomies for people in Iran or knitting lessons for folks in Scandinavia, it doesn’t matter. However useful or necessary or not necessary those out of country items are, none of them are more important than my friends and my neighbors.

From the Maine Wire, Mon. October 20, 2025:

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When the grid fails, your calm mind might be the last light on. I know, it sounds cheesy, but it’s true. The idea of mental health in prepping is often relegated to a short oneliner: “Three months without hope.” Bam, done. Except it’s not done, and in many ways, mental health is something we ought to be paying a ton more attention to, and it’s also something we almost entirely ignore. Current prepper magazines and e-zines talk a lot about ammo, food, shelter, the Rule of Threes, types of firearms and other weapons, even first aid… but they don’t talk about what to do if someone’s mind breaks.

There are a handful of stories out there about preppers who went a little “funny” while getting anxious over expired food or having the right stuff in their go-bags. It’s definitely easy to let your anxiety run you down, especially if you’re actually IN an emergency already. Isolation is a huge contributor to mental health issues, and even if you have your family with you, bunker life or hunkering down at home is going to cause some problems. We know more about this than we should, thanks to the pandemic. With that in mind, we should be applying mental health prep to our general SHTF preparations. The topic deserves more than one line. We need to give mental health its proper focus, as an integral and continuing part of our everyday prepping activities.

The idea of a “loneliness spike” is not a new one. We know it from studying trauma after real disasters (Harvard study). We are aware of how insecurity and worry causes brain fog (Medical News Today). There are studies done on survivors of hurricanes and the prevalence of PTSD among them (National Institute of Health), where mental health issues can affect up to 30% of those who make it through. Then there’s the idea of survivor’s guilt, which is absolutely real and devastating, and something we know both from horrors like the Holocaust, and soldiers coming back from war, and even families caught in natural disasters. All of these problems are things that could and likely will happen in a SHTF scenario, and so we must begin to come up with methods to help minimize the trauma response. After all, you want the person who’s got your back to be sane… and they want the same thing.

So how do we minimize the kind of mental health problems we’re likely to see in a post-apocalypse or post-big-emergency world? Some of the most banal and stupid practices done in therapists offices around the world are the most effective. Breathing exercises (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4), journaling positive things, active exercises just for the sake of doing it, avoiding reading the news (which may or may not be a problem come the apocalypse), and checking in on friends are all methods you can use to keep your panic down and your mental load a bit more healthy. Yes, the world may be falling to ruin around you, but if that’s your focus, you will go to ruin with it. The most resilient minds are the ones that can ignore “all that stuff out there” and instead focus on what can be done here and now.

Community is a big part of what keeps us on an even keel. Yes, the smallest community is your family, but at some point you have to reach beyond that. Human beings are meant to live in villages, and we need the company of others to keep us straight and sane. Whether you’re organizing a town meeting, bartering your skills for therapy (like in The Last Of Us), or having a sit down “come to Jesus” moment like an AA meeting, doesn’t really matter. It’s the doing that’s important, rather than what it is you’re doing. When paranoia is the word of the day, it’s going to be tough to reach out to people and form lasting connections, but it’s something that has to be done. If you can’t come to terms with doing it for yourself, think of doing it for the sake of your kids or your neighbors’ kids.

The big question is how to make the best SHTF armor possible, not just for the body, but for the mind as well. Group talks and forums can help, if there’s still internet to be had. But there are some really simple things you can do every day to make sure your mental health doesn’t become a liability. The first and most important thing is to get enough sleep. Obviously if you’re fighting zombies, that might get pushed back in priority… but only for a while. If you want to live rather than just survive, you’re going to have to get to a point where you can sleep on the regular. You have to get food into your body, too. Good quality food (even if it’s canned) is going to be a huge help in making you feel safe. Going for a walk, whenever it’s safe and possible, also helps, as does gardening (National Institute of Health).

So there you have it. Stock up your mental health preps right beside your beans. Be ready to surround yourself with the start of a community, and be prepared to keep building. Focus on the end goal, which is to thrive. Survival should only be your goal in the beginning. Once you’ve achieved survival, it’s time to live and thrive, to grow and heal. That’s your focus; a healthy, happy world for the children we bring into it. Don’t ignore mental health preps. We’ve seen what happens when you do (look “to the Left” for visual cues).

On Saturday, while I was camped out at a lovely open air farmer and maker’s market for the afternoon, a Left friend reached out to people “on her feed” on Facebook. She said she was aware some of her followers and friends had voted for Trump, and asked if we were willing to explain why, and whether we feel Trump is doing an adequate job since getting into office. She made it crystal clear that no one was going to be dogpiled for responding (though I’m not sure how she intends to ensure that, since she can only control what’s on her wall, but the gesture was nice). She legitimately wanted to know.

I thought about it for a long time. I could have answered. I didn’t really want to do so in public, though. As I’ve said before, I’m still trying to keep my customers around, many of whom are on the Left. I don’t believe in mixing politics and business (other than what’s required by law… I mean that a business hanging a Trump or Dem sign out front is basically telling people that they value politics over business, and I might do so privately but not publicly). So I paged her privately and said I’d talk with her, but only in private.

She wanted to know why. I sat with that one for a good five minutes before finally explaining, “Because there’s been a lot of violence toward people on the Right of late, including a number of shootings. I don’t want to be shot, hun.” It took her a while to respond, and when she did, she admitted she understood now that it was explained, and that she was sorry if I felt threatened.

That led to me telling her I’d talk to her today or tomorrow (looks like tomorrow wins, as she’s busy today). I didn’t have time to get into long discussions with her while vending at a craft fair. She got it… she does the same thing (and well; she’s formed her own thriving business that is keeping her in her home, supporting her daughter, and paying for lawyers to keep her abusive ex out of her life). But I did explain to her that, while I didn’t think there was much chance of my being shot, it was something I thought about. A lot. Maybe Chris would get shot. Maybe one of my kids. I pointed out that an awful lot of Leftists and Liberals are talking freely right now, tromping around in front of ICE and the government, with no worry for their lives… and conservatives and Right leaning folk are wearing flak vests and standing behind bullet proof glass just to have simple conversations. After another long pause, she agreed. “Yeah…”

In the scattered long-distance chat we had over Saturday, she learned just how often I’d been called a Nazi of late, or a bigot, or a few other hateful names. She just couldn’t understand that. She’s known me since her girl was a little one, and left that little girl in my care on a few occasions during faire. She knows I support human beings living however they want, provided they’re consenting adults. She knows I’m poly, pagan, kinky, pansexual, all the things. She knows I’m not a Nazi, or a bigot. She knows, from personal experience, that I walk my talk.

What I intend to suggest to her is that, if we’d had the conversation in public, there might have come a moment when someone else used one of those horrid names for me. At that point, she would have had to either tell the person they were wrong (setting herself up as a target for her own people… ie largely how I ended up over here initially), be silent and let it happen (tacit approval), or engage in calling me names herself (open approval). Would she be willing to stand up for someone when it might put her at risk, or her kid? It’s a legitimate concern right now, after all. And that might lead to her asking herself why she’s involved with someone or a group of someones who would push her away because she had spoken with someone “like me.”

I think it’s going to be an interesting conversation…

I have a number of Jewish friends, and I hear about brisket all the time. There was the running joke about Howard’s mother’s brisket in The Big Bang Theory. Brisket is one of those cuts of meat that is just scrumptious, if cooked right. So how do you cook it? It depends a lot on the cut you’re using. I’m going for slow cooked brisket at this point in my cooking career, because I love the convenience of the slow cooker (though I did cook this one in the oven). It’s a bit pricey (our 3lb brisket cost about $21), but it’s totally worth it. Also, it makes your whole house smell like heaven.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs untrimmed flat-cut beef brisket
• 1/2 tbsp salt, plus more to taste
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 3 tbsp oil (olive or vegetable)
• 2 medium yellow onions, sliced
• 4 celery stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces, leaves coarsely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 cups red wine (such as Merlot or Pinot Noir)
• 28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp dried thyme OR several sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and cut on a bias into 2-inch pieces

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Season the brisket with most of the salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the brisket, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Place the onions, celery, and garlic in the pot, tossing it in the residual fat. Season with the remaining salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the wine, tomatoes, ketchup, brown sugar, thyme, and bay leaves, and stir to combine. Nestle the brisket down into the liquid, fat side up. You may need to move some of the onion mix to get it low enough. Most of the brisket should be covered with liquid, but it’s okay if the fat is out. Cover the pot and cook in the oven until the meat is fork-tender, about 3 hours.

Uncover the pot and add the carrots around the brisket. Cook, uncovered, until the carrots are tender (not soft) and the top of brisket is browned and crisp, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the brisket from the pot and let it rest while you make the sauce. Use a spoon to skim fat from the surface of the braising liquid and discard. Heat over medium-high heat and cook until the liquid is thickened to a sauce-like consistency, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. When the sauce is mostly ready, cut up the brisket by slicing it against the grain. Place the sliced brisket on a deep serving platter. Pour the sauce over the brisket and serve!

For sides, you need to keep in mind that Jewish folk don’t mix dairy and meat. If you don’t care, feel free to go with whatever sides you like, but if you want to enjoy the full Jewish brisket experience, try some baked sweet potato drizzled with olive oil, a cabbage and apple slaw for a tart finish, or some hot cornbread.

Sorry this one took a couple of weeks. It’s been busy here. Things are starting to settle down, though. Of course, that also means it’s almost National Novel Writing Month, and I’m going to be writing a flurry of words (50,000+ in 30 days), but I’m not going to think about that for a bit. LOL… We left off Heinlein’s list about here:

Take orders. You need to be able to take orders because no matter how “high up” you are on any particular totem pole, at some point you’re going to run into someone who’s higher than you. This is because we’re not ever going to be experts at everything. We each spend time with people who are better at something than we are, and when those people are in charge, you must be able to do what you’re told. But as any American soldier will tell you, it isn’t that simple (even though it sort of is). Per the Uniform Code of Military Justice, soldiers are only required to obey LAWFUL orders. Our soldiers are given more latitude as to what’s lawful and what’s not, while still being held to an extremely high standard (and getting higher, thanks Pete!). All of our soldiers are expected to be thinking people. Blind adherence is not useful. But the ability to continue to take orders, even when things are tough, even when you’re shitting your pants, even when you’re scared, is absolutely necessary. That’s also true of those of us NOT soldiers, though perhaps to a slightly lower level. As non-combatants, even if we end up as guerrilla fighters, we just need to be able to follow orders at a competent level. You need to recognize when someone knows more than you do, and be able to take a back-seat for a bit.

Give orders. There will be a moment when YOU are the expert, the leader, the person in charge. It might be on purpose, and it might be by accident, but regardless, you must be prepared to give orders. More than that, you may have to give orders that you know damn well will end up with someone hurt (physically or emotionally), or worse, dead. You need to be prepared for whatever outcome happens when you give those orders.  You have to be ready to give them decisively, with authority, and with strength of belief.

Cooperate. That’s a tough one, hm? Yes, you might have to cooperate with people who don’t share your world view. You might have to work with liberals and Democrats. But it CAN be done. And you must know both how to, and when to. Sometimes, it’s just going to be an easy choice. Groups often have better survivability options than singletons. It’s a skill we’re horribly underdeveloped in, in my very strong opinion. When was the last time you reached out to someone you disagree with, to cooperate? Maybe it’s time. Practice, because it’s important. And just in case someone wants to leap to conclusions, no, this doesn’t mean you have to “give in and open the government” or anything like that. I’m talking small scale here. Neighbors. Friends of friends. Local government maybe.

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Let’s see… The good is that the Right is holding its ground over the Left’s tantrum. I need you all to hear that up front: I AGREE WITH THE SHUTDOWN. I would agree with it on purely conservative morals, but I also happen to be a staunch supporter of smaller government. A government shutdown means we have the absolute minimum government (well, sort of, but you get the idea) and therefore I support the shutdown. The longer it drags on, the more we know just what we can do without.

The bad is that the Left is fighting back with the usual cycle of lies, half truths, and more lies. I need you all to hear this up front: I DO NOT AGREE WITH THE LEFT on any of this stuff.

And now, the ugly.

I often joked in private about Obama being the Teleprompter in Chief. Well, Trump is the MemeLord in Chief, and it’s a problem. I realize some of you may not consider it a problem at all, or a very minor one at best, but I DO consider it a problem. One of the sticking points I had, back during Trump 1.0, was the “mean tweets.” It really stuck in my craw. I’m going to be honest… it still does.

When I see Trump standing up, with Vance or with Melania, or even one of his kids, I see the dad, the grandfather, a righteous man who’s doing his best for his country. I respect that all to hell. Watching him erupt out of a sea of secret service to pump fist, blood streaming down his face, that was awe inspiring (also, I want those guys fired because he should NOT have been allowed to do that, but I digress). This is not Trump 1.0, and I see the good he’s doing. I see him brokering peace. I see him strengthening our economy. I see him doing infrastructure things in the government that are good, and will last for years to come.

But my FUCKING gawd, when he gets tweeting, I just want to vomit. I really do. I get it… he’s “just a man” and he wants to stick it to the folks who are poking and shooting at him. And if he was Trump the billionaire or Trump the last President, I’d sigh and move on. But he isn’t those things. He’s Trump, our current, sitting President. He’s the man leading our country. And things that I might find (or do find) amusing coming from one of us, I find just plain wrong coming from the Oval Office.

From the White House twitter account today:

As someone formerly of the middle, and honestly not that far out from the middle, it just turns me off. Sure it’s “just” a mean tweet. But it speaks volumes. I don’t mind the text as much, but the image (it’s actually a screenshot of a video) is just too much. It takes AWAY from the message. It makes it too damn easy to say, “Oh, it’s just Trump being a twit(ter) again.” And I don’t want that said.

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