shortages? thoughts?

[Hinotori]

Many of the cases turned up in local news. Just simple facts. I know more about the Hermiston one simply because I have friends and classmates that worked out there.

I am and always have been politically neutral. Been an Independent voter since 18. I actually read the voter pamplets and on candidates will Google their name under news to find any blatant abuses. My vote can go either way and to whom I think will do the best job. Sometimes even things I learned in say high school economics and civics back in the late 80s and early 90s help. Such as people being used as an example in economics of how Not to run a business, repeatedly, and again when we were tracking the stock market to show how it effected dividends. Lets just say I wasn't surprised by some things in the last decade.

Stay away from the extremist news sites. Even then, they sometimes do have fully factual articles. I read all of the local news sites on same incidents. News further afield I have a good news aggregate site that stays fairly neutral. User submitted links, then they are debated and voted on by paying members before they hit the main page with better articles from different news sites getting the greenlight sometimes. That helps weed out a lot of the biased crap.

I still laugh about General Norman Schwarzkopf using CNN against the enemy in Desert Storm. The CNN morons were giving out classified troop movements on air which was being watched by Iraq. And then they had the had the nerve to get upset that they were lied to.

 

[Hinotori]

You're not wrong, but you're doing a cognitive distortion called "kitchen sinking" as in the idiom everything but the kitchen sink. You're combining multiple unrelated things together in a way that increases anxiety.

Serious power grid issues are not new, especially for Texans. So the "and now" is the cognitive distortion.

Taxes (plural, as in all of my taxes) have not doubled, literally. Thats a cognitive distortion. Which taxes have increased by how much? Is a better way to discuss. Federal income tax rates are the same and since we live in different states, I dont know from your comment what changes you are facing or how significant they are.

We also need to compare apples to apples. I've always bought $7 lunch meat (when its on sale from $10-$12/pound). I have not seen $10 bacon or $8 hamburger. I've seen situations (in large sicial media groups) where someone complains about a high grocery price, and someone else says a store 15 miles away has a normal price for the same item. We have to remember our world views are geographically small and our online views very narrow because algorithms only show us what we agree with.

Social media algorithms are terrifying, frankly. Look at what happened to Brazil!! The deep political divides in the USA are due to social media algorithms. I deleted my accounts and use ad blockers. It is the only thing I can control. I wont be influenced by a computer algorithm.

Only big taxes that has gone up for us isn't actually a rate increase. On property tax they assessed our place at worth 100k more than last year. That's an issue caused by the current houses bubble. I saw the same thing back in Virginia Beach in the 2000s leading up to that crash.

Meat has gone up a little. Most things have at the grocery here. Not huge amounts when it's just been a price increase. It's the product downsizing that really increases the cost per ounce. Yes, I always check. Mom carried a calculator in her purse when I was a kid just to do that. Some things stick. Like figuring out mpg after every fill up, never dropping below 1/4 tank because we live away from the city, knowing that just because gas is $0.5 cheaper across town, you'll spend more than you save going there and back.

Labor costs more so there have been minor increases to cover that. The flats of berries we buy went up $2. That was all over the wage increases.

Good deals can be found. Guess what I'm smoking tomorrow.

 

[Britesea]

right. i mean i dont hold it against them. most of the ones ive spoken to call it commiefornia because of all the green regulations and taxes that ended up making it unlivable for the average person. alot of them are just regular people trying to make a living, but we are suffering for it. i really hope they dont bring the same mentalities to the voter booths and make Texas progressive....but thats probably gonna happen.


then on top of that we have a power grid thats struggling to keep up AND they built thousands of new houses this year to hook to the same grid. its all about revenue i guess. "dont worry about the mule, just load the cart so we can get paid"



maybe alot of these separate issues (food shortages, mass death of livestock, fuel prices, food prices, inflation, housing market, building material prices, local taxes, stock markets, interest rates, etc) are unrelated but it seems like they are compounding on each other and the average people are getting the shaft. its gonna be much worse than 08


i may be all doom and gloom but i dont see things getting any better any time soon and im starting to question if its all by accident or if some of it is by design.


im gonna keep doing what we do. keep practicing self reliance, keep my family safe, fed, and healthy. i guess thats all we can do.

Don't forget putting your faith in God. Jesus already won the battle, but the Enemy doesn't believe it.

 

[flowerbug]

My problem around here is the Industrial Ag taking over.
The small dairy farmer is being shut down because the dairies don't want to deal with their smaller production amounts.

maybe they can find a cheesemaker or start a co-op with other small local dairy folks?

sometimes there is a way to work through such changes. at least i sure hope so.

 

[Hinotori]

All of the bird flu is backyard flocks in Washington state here have had contact with wild waterfowl. We are still getting cases here.

 

[tortoise]

I'm having a heck of a time finding cream in WI. Organic Valley brand is the only brand I can have/get here (due to food additives in others). I think it has been 6 weeks sonce Ive seen it. I switched to half and half which doesnt have thickeners or diglycerides added.

Anyone else? IDK if I'm shopping the wrong days/times or if I should drive to a different city to find it

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

I just paid $26 for a bag of Flock raiser here.

@CrealCritter I shredded zucchini here and feed to the chickens, they eat it right up. I freeze a bunch for them and freeze and then just take out what I need as I need it.

@tortoise They have the Organic Calley at our WalMart and it is regularly in stock. Maybe they dont stock it for your area because it isnt a big seller. Not sure how far you want to drive but it looks like a couple WalMarts in your area carry it too

 

[tortoise]

you can't process your own? (i had to look up what that was )

There is a shortage of sunflower seeds. Globally is due to Ukraine. In the USA, there was a shortage of sunflower seed (field seed) this spring. There might be some relief this winter from this year's USA sunflower harvest, but sunflower products (especially oil) are likely to be higher priced and less available for at least a year.

Ukraine exports/exported 47% of global exports of sunflower oil.

 

[flowerbug]

glad to see Jif back on the shelves. we're still working our way through a 2nd 5lb jar of Skippy so we won't need any for another month or so but it is nice to see it back.

 

[flowerbug]

There is a shortage of sunflower seeds. Globally is due to Ukraine. In the USA, there was a shortage of sunflower seed (field seed) this spring. There might be some relief this winter from this year's USA sunflower harvest, but sunflower products (especially oil) are likely to be higher priced and less available for at least a year.

Ukraine exports/exported 47% of global exports of sunflower oil.

i've not been having a hard time finding sunflower seeds at WallysWorld.