Ravalli county MT is working on something like this. We recently moved to MT, and are far happier than we were in AZ in general.

Now if our new gov and state legislature do away with masks I will be even happier though most local businesses don't care and big boxes are lax in terms of enforcement.

Given the fact it is bullshit and killing people, I am glad the terrorists are getting it first.

I had a dream Trump bought Disney world and EPCOT. Renamed it the Donald j Trump American Experience. Filled it with our history and cool rides and attractions, and filled EPCOT with all kinds of cutting edge American tech and inventions.

It was amazing. The left hated it.

Hubby and I downsized into no fed tax territory as of the first of the year. Moved to an area where we can live simply on a low enough income to only pay a marginal state tax and social security. When he goes on social security himself later this year we will be paying nothing but sales taxes.

This isn't as tough as it sounds.

Hubby and I already headed for the hills, we relocated first week of January lol.

Totally cool stuff there.

Don't know if this is related but I get several robocalls a month from local numbers claiming my social security number has been subpoenaed and warrants have been issued. Totally ridiculous so I report them as scams and block them.

I have a!so seen a big uptick in robocalls telling me my iPhone or itunes accounts are showing suspicious activity and will be blocked. Never owned an apple product. I don't know if this happens to anyone else here but the two types of calls tend to come back to back.

Goo goo clusters are sublime. Tough to find in stores sometimes, but I have had luck in some Walgreens stores, ace hardware, grocery outlets and occasionally in random dollar stores lol.

Standard candy company in Nashville makes goo goo clusters. Ultimate sublime pecan goodness.

That is absolutely disgusting.

Yep. Hard to make money on minimalism and they definitely are fans of depopulation.

We have a pressure canner, a food dehydrator and a vacuum sealer. Pressure canned food lasts up to eighteen months, and jars and rings are renewable forever basically.

I dehydrate bulk foods in a slow oven, like eggs, when I want to package food for remote camping. Though I tend to dehydrate meats and make jerky for snacks most often.

We are typically set up with enough jars on hand to can up everything in the freezer and fridge should we face a long term power outage, and I have never lost food to one in my life.

We keep a six month pantry in food and household, and it is all good high quality proteins and such. A long term pantry stabilizes the household budget at the lowest practical level, and means if times get really tight you can simply vs top spending money on food and household and free up that money for other things.

The first cars ever were built were electric. That didn't last long due to inefficiency and that remains the case today.

Not to mention all these fancy dance things require rare earth minerals, which we no longer mine in the USA due to environmental restrictions. So all this tech relies on strategic minerals we can only get from China, Africa and elsewhere where they are mined with zero regard for the environment or miner safety.

We have rare earth reserves. We could mine them safely. But we don't. One should never rely on potential and actual enemies for shit that is necessary for critical infrastructure.

Nuclear, especially the new stuff that can use waste from older plants, is the greenest thing around. But good luck building nuclear plants any more despite the fact they are extremely safe and reliable.

The whole climate change shit is a crock regardless, but the push for wind turbines, solar and electric cars is really a crock.

Living simply and being frugal is both green and practical, not that many people want to. Hubby's and my carbon footprint is really low for instance. And if you believe in the whole climate change thing, then the best way to tackle it is everyone doing small things daily anyway.

No problem, HMU if you need more cooking tips lol. My grandmother trained me very well on long term pantry management and cheap cooking. It comes in handy.

I never considered us poor or unfortunate personally. My father moved up to where we didn't need the box over time, but it was a good box all things considered.

I was an only child. But I was fed, clothed and heaven help me if I got below a B plus in anything other than gym class.

Oh, it is dystopian indeed. But after seeing in person the results of the current system rewarding people for having children they can't afford for several decades now I am sick of it.

When I was a teen in the 80s, girls celebrated getting pregnant. Had kids, raised by their mothers (badly) in housing project section 8 apartments, while they spent the clothing allowance they got annually for children they didn't parent or even care about on rabbit fur jackets, designer jeans, gold chains and partying.

That is as dystopian as you can get.

Well yeah if you do something like that you have issues.

However, most people over pay all year and get a refund, and this is silly. If you manage your exemptions properly barring tax credits you shouldn't get a refund.

And if you end the year owing a few hundred, pay it in April.

Best plan is figure out the maximum your family can earn yearly to owe nothing or very little, and move somewhere you can live on that. So if you and your spouse can earn sixty thousand before owing, move somewhere you can live on 55k. Then all you are paying is any state and local taxes and social security. Hubby and I are in that bracket now, and when he files for social security the feds will be getting nothing.

What standards would those be? Media hasn't had reasonable standards in decades. And NYT hasn't had them since around Viet nam and they were spotty at best then.

I will say when I was a kid they usually confined their worst bullshit to editorials. But some still showed up in the articles now and then.

Nothing wrong with economic terrorism. That's what boycotts and cancel culture are about. And look at the Goya stockholders getting the CEO in trouble for being a patriot, and also whining that they could have made more during the pandemic.

I totally approve of tactics like this and killing hedge funds.

Drug screening. Budget management and basic home economics skills. Participation in internships or some kind of useful training program. Women should be on birth control, if you can't support yourself then you shouldn't have extra children over any you already have.

And food stamps should be limited to real food. We limit WIC to real food.

I have never taken government assistance but I remember standing in line once a month with my father for the government commodities box. I would rather see us giving American families food than shipping it overseas as food aid, when it often doesn't reach hungry people anyway.

Government cheese was good shit. I still remember everything that typically came in that box lol.

I feed hubby and I really well on what we would receive for food stamps if we had no income, and it pisses me off to no end when the government admits almost thirty percent of all food stamps are spent on junk food and luxury foods we can't afford.

And if we have to have welfare, then at least make it possible to get ahead enough so you don't need it. A better option than cash payments would be free child care for instance, not just for when you are learning the trade but for say a year after you have gotten a job so you can get caught up on bills and build a long term pantry.

But no bullshit training programs. Useful shit only.

Yep. Hubby and I are older, but even when I was younger I made time.

Called and door knocked both in this election and the two previous. I also volunteered and ground canvassed for voter integrity project in AZ.

I was a state convention delegate for Trump in 2016.

When I campaign, it's an all out thing.

You gotta pull off the extra water, or you need a double boiler, extremely thick pan and a crapload of patience. Thick pan is a must for tomato cookery regardless since they do burn so easily, I bought the thickest bottomed commercial stock pot I could find when I stocked our kitchen decades ago.

My grandmother would let tomato puree sit up to two days, siphoning off water at regular intervals. She liked to use some of the tomato water in the kraut barrel. She also used it to make bread and in cornbread casseroles.

I am fortunate she taught me to cook.

I deseed mine then run them through a high speed blender peel and all until I have a fine grained puree, with a small amount of onion, garlic, fresh herbs and citrus zest. I make my own citrus pepper blends and citrus zest blends, and use different ones depending on type of sauce. Then I add my pre measured spices, sweetener and vinegar if needed (almost never need sweetener with good San marzano) bring to a simmer for about twenty minutes or so.

I then cool on the stove stick in the fridge over night and draw off some of the excess tomato water in the morning for use in making stocks and bone broth. I often taste if when it hits room temp to see where I am in terms of flavor profile.

Then I slowly bring it to a simmer again ( sometimes in a double boiler) and check the flavor balance to see if it is where I want it. Some sauces like marinara or simple red sauce I prefer a really clean simple flavor profile. Others I like more complex profiles. I really go to town when I make ketchup or cocktail sauce.

For enchilada type sauces I stick to really simple, just the tomato and roasted chili generally with a touch of roasted garlic and a splash of lemon or lime juice.

I simmer it until it gets to the thickness I want, then I jar it and pressure can it for later use, one of the few times I have a use for pint jars.

I have found using the two day process and using fresh herbs spices and real onion gives a really deep flavor, since all the flavors marry well over night. And siphoning off the extra tomato water cuts the cooking process significantly. I never bring it above a simmer, and when I am getting extremely fancy like with the good ketchup I reduce small batches at a time in cast iron or use my grandmother's old trick of resting a cast iron spoon in the stock pot while it is simmering.

Copper adds a nice flavor note to tomato and other higher acid products also, though I only drop a chunk of copper in my pickle brine now and then, generally when doing garlic dill.

I like a mix of two to one Roma/San marzano myself, with some of my roasted tomatoes for added flavor. San marzano are excellent sauce and paste tomatoes.

The one and only thing I will miss about southern AZ is that if you can defend against the hordes of insects, tomatoes are perennial. I managed to keep two Roma plants going for almost five years. They were amazing producers.

Yep. This is why companies should, generally, be apolitical. And one of the reasons conservative companies in the current climate should remain private and not sell stock.

Commies love infiltrating companies because they need the money. And leftists in general are very good at economic jihad.

Oh, well. Once I get a garden up and running in our new location or get a cheap source for local tomato sauce I will just make my own again. Mine is better anyway.