NEWS AND OPINION:
Thousands of military families are now struggling with food security, according to a significant report from The Associated Press released Sunday.
This distressing phenomenon is already well known to the nation’s food banks, plus many nonprofit organizations, interest groups and charities. As many as 160,000 active-duty military members are having trouble feeding their families, according to the report.
“One of the strangest aspects of the problem is a mysterious Agriculture Department regulation that prevents thousands of needy military families from receiving food stamps. Families living outside the base grounds receive a Basic Allowance for Housing to help cover most of their costs,” AP said.
“But the 2008 Food and Nutrition Act dictates that the allowance counts as income in calculating eligibility to receive SNAP benefits, and that ends up disqualifying thousands of military families.”
Here’s another troubling concern.
“The issue is more than just a humanitarian problem. It directly impacts national security,” said Josh Protas, vice president of public policy for MAZON, an organization that has done extensive research on military hunger. Armed forces members enduring food insecurity are more likely to be distracted in the field and less likely to reenlist,” the AP report said.
A Pentagon official told the news service that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would be publicly speaking on the topic in the near future.
THE BIDEN ERA UNRAVELS
The major broadcast networks are slowly coming to terms with a reality that conservatives and Republicans know by heart.
As of Monday, President Biden has been in office for 299 days. His tenure at the White House started out cries of relief and smug satisfaction among many voters. But no more. ABC News has the numbers.
“Republican congressional candidates currently hold their largest lead in midterm election vote preferences in ABC News/Washington Post polls dating back 40 years, underscoring profound challenges for Democrats hoping to retain their slim majorities in Congress next year,” the network reported Sunday.
“While a year is a lifetime in politics, the Democratic Party’s difficulties are deep; they include soaring economic discontent, a president who’s fallen 12 percentage points underwater in job approval and a broad sense that the party is out of touch with the concerns of most Americans — 62% say so,” ABC News said.
“As things stand, if the midterm elections were today, 51% of registered voters say they’d support the Republican candidate in their congressional district, 41% say the Democrat. That’s the biggest lead for Republicans in the 110 ABC/Post polls that have asked this question since November 1981. Indeed, it’s only the second time the GOP has held a statistically significant advantage (the other was +7 points in January 2002) and the ninth time it’s held any numerical edge at all,” the analysis noted.
This ABC News/Washington Post poll of 1,001 U.S. adults was conducted Nov. 7-10.
‘BLAH, BLAH, BLAH’
Oh dear. It’s being billed as the “COP FLOP.”
Even teen climate activist Greta Thunberg is not happy with the outcome of COP 26 — the United Nations’ global climate change gathering which went on and on for almost two weeks, and ended Friday. It was marked by the fact that some 400 private jets and a 85-car motorcade — complete with exhaust fumes — were very much a part of the big doings in Glasgow, Scotland.
“The COP26 is over. Here’s a brief summary: Blah, blah, blah,” Ms. Thunberg tweeted Sunday, also calling the gathering a “greenwash festival.”
The summit was deemed a “failure” by the Guardian, Forbes, the BBC and other major news organizations after the participating nations weakened in their quest to reduce greenhouse gas emission and curb the use of fossil fuels.
“The UN climate summit’s failure is good news for humanity, science, and a rational energy policy,” said Marc Morano, founder of Climate Depot, an investigative news site.
“Despite the tears over the UN’s latest climate failure, the would-be planet savers will continue to strive to regulate and control every aspect of human endeavors from the food we eat, to the energy we use, to our transportation, to our housing and our economies. While we can savor the moment of this failure by the UN climate forces, we must remain vigilant in defeating the climate agenda,” he advised in a statement.
Find Mr. Morano’s site at ClimateDepot.com.
DON’T OVERLOOK THE ‘HEROES OF LIBERTY’
A helpful new book series arrives Monday, of interest to parents, grandparents, guardians, aunts, uncles, friends and other folks with children on their holiday shopping list.
Heroes of Liberty, a handsome new series of children’s books, are aimed at “countering woke indoctrination in schools” with biographies of exceptional American role models who embrace patriotism and conservative values.
“We can’t change the school system overnight, but we can regain control of our children’s bookshelves and bedtime reading. The only way a great nation can pass on its values to the next generation is with meaningful, lesson-filled stories. There is no better way to inspire,” the publisher says in a mission statement.
The first three books are devoted to former President Ronald Reagan, writer Thomas Sowell, and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Future books will be devoted to Rush Limbaugh, John Wayne, Margaret Thatcher and Douglas MacArthur among others.
Find the new book series at HeroesofLiberty.com.
POLL DU JOUR
• 33% of U.S. adults say drug abuse is an “extremely serious” problem in the U.S.; 49% of Republicans, 26% of independents and 28% of Democrats agree.
• 31% overall say drug abuse is a “very serious” problem in the U.S.; 32% of Republicans, 34% of independents and 26% of Democrats agree.
• 26% overall say drug abuse is a “moderately serious” problem in the U.S.; 15% of Republicans, 28% of independents and 35% of Democrats agree.
• 7% overall say drug abuse is a “not too serious” problem in the U.S.; 1% of Republicans, 9% of independents and 9% of Democrats agree.
• 2% overall say drug abuse is “not serious at all” in the U.S.; 2% of Republicans, 2% of independents and 1% of Democrats agree.
SOURCE: A Gallup poll of 823 U.S. adults conducted Oct. 1-19 and released Nov. 11.
• Helpful information to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
