Tootfinder

I donated again to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Due to the dire threats to the USA from the current administration and the Republican party I am donating as much as I spend on myself to charity this year.
https://www.splcenter.org/
We still have so much racism injustice for the poor in the USA. We…

SPLC | Apathy Is Not An Option
The Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to creating a world where Black and Brown communities are represented and respected by our democracy.

The Real Gaetz Story Is Less About Sex Trafficking, More About Poverty | Dame Magazine
https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/12/03/the-real-gaetz-story-is-less-about-sex-trafficking-more-about-poverty/

China has brought millions out of poverty.
The US has not – by choice
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/china-us-poverty-income-inequality?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A shocking new warning about global poverty should unsettle everyone (Bryan Walsh/Vox)
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/470491/extreme-poverty-sub-saharan-africa-world-bank-conflict-climate-change
http://www.memeorandum.com/251130/p15#a251130p15

The US military has always had a massive global advantage against enemies by having bases all over the world. There are bases in every NATO country. This would appear to be a powerful threat to anyone willing to oppose American hegemon, and under normal conditions it would be.
But a lot of those kids serving on those bases joined, not because they love America but, because they needed a ticket out of poverty. They joined for the education, for the money, maybe a bit for the adventure, but, more than anything, to escape the ghetto or podunk backwater that trapped them. Under normal times, this is the best deal they could expect. Maybe they risk their lives, usually they sit around being bored for a few years, and they get to come out with respect and paid college.
But what they are being offered is normal in most of the countries they're stationed in. Free healthcare, cheap or free education, is just what citizens in a lot of countries have come to expect. If the US attacked a NATO country, how many would snap up citizenship if they were given a chance to defect? Bonus points for taking some hardware with you, I'm sure.
But there are some who love their country. There are some patriotic Americans on those bases. Some of them joined specifically to protect the US from all enemies, foreign *and* domestic. Given a chance to fulfill that oath or violate international law, what happens?
There are a good number of former military folks too who now are unsafe in the countries they served, who would do just about anything for citizenship in any EU country and almost any NATO ally. Some of those folks know things they swore an oath to never share, but the country they swore an oath to has betrayed them. Today there's no value in leaking those secrets, but in a war between the US and NATO allies things would be different. Some of those former military folks still believe in their oath, and know exactly who the real enemy is. What happens when there's a real threat of war, when they can use their knowledge to fulfill that oath to protect the US against those domestic threats?
There are a bunch of civilian tech workers who have become targets of the regime. Some of them had clearance, or know about the skeletons in the closet. They know about critical infrastructure, classified systems, all sorts of things that would be extremely valuable to an opponent. But the opponents of the US have always been a frightening *other*, never familiar societies these folks look up to, have visited, have thought about moving to, are trying to escape to.
All I'm saying here is that invading Venezuela and kidnapping the president has a very different calculus than does attacking Greenland. I don't know if Trump or his people are able to understand that, but if he and his folks aren't then I hope European leaders are. But more than that, I hope it never comes down to finding out.
But perhaps we should all think about what we would do to make sure things ended quickly if American leadership ever made such an incredible mistake.

"The poverty threshold in the Bay Area is $28,081 annual income for one adult and $52,715 for a family of four, according to Tipping Point Community. The near poverty benchmark is $42,122 for one adult and $79,073 for a family of four."
As reference, San Francisco's minimum wage is $18.57, or $37,140/year (50x40hr weeks) At present the average rent for a studio is about $2300, low rent about maybe $1500 (Zumper website data). At the low rent studio, the rent burden is …

Uruguay just proved what's possible: they shifted to 98% renewable electricity in just two years—and it slashed poverty rates in the process.
The secret? They framed it as economic opportunity, not climate doom. With public ownership ensuring access for all, they built a model that works for people AND the planet.
https://

The Way Things Are Is Not the Way They Have to Be
Award-winning journalist Natasha Hakimi Zapata shows that ‘Another World Is Possible’.

"In 1990, 943 million people [in China] lived on less than $3 a day measured in 2021 dollars – 83% of the population, according to the World Bank. By 2019, the number was brought down to zero. Unfortunately, the United States was not as successful. More than 4 million Americans – 1.25% of the population – must make ends meet with less than $3 a day, more than three times as many as 35 years ago."

"The relationship between power, poverty, inequality, and lack of political participation is mirrored in the damage to the natural world. They cannot be divorced from each other."
—Yale School of the Environment professor Gerald Torres ’77 J.D. writing in the new issue of Reflections https://

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #AfternoonShow
Gang of Four:
🎵 To Hell With Poverty (Gay Marvine Edit)
#GangofFour
https://gangoffour.bandcamp.com/track/to-hell-with-poverty
https://open.spotify.com/track/5meAeH2xj8CkB5ZUahQJQ6

Nigel Farage wants to cut price of beer by reinstating two-child limit - Big Issue
https://www.bigissue.com/news/politics/nigel-farage-beer-prices-two-child-benefit-limit/
Same old Tories, effectively.
No wonder he won't deba…

Farage puts pints over poverty with plan to cut price of beer by reinstating two-child benefit cap
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has pledged to reinstate the two-child limit on benefits to pay for a 5p cut off pints of beer to boost pubs.

Sonnet 103 - CIII
Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth,
That having such a scope to show her pride,
The argument all bare is of more worth
Than when it hath my added praise beside!
O! blame me not, if I no more can write!
Look in your glass, and there appears a face
That over-goes my blunt invention quite,
Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
Were it not sinful then, striving to mend,
To mar the subject that before was well?…

#Chronic #hunger affects 673 million people
– about 8.2% of the world
– driven by poverty, broken food systems & inequality.
GIJN’s new guide shows how to dig into systemic failures:

Global Investigative Journalism Network (@gijn.org)
Chronic hunger affects 673 million people – about 8.2% of the – driven by poverty, broken food systems & inequality. GIJN’s new guide shows how to dig into systemic failures: https://twp.ai/9PXveB

RE: #poverty in #America

Some of my 2025 donations
Trickle Up https://trickleup.org/
Develop Africa https://www.developafrica.org/
Southern P…

Pondering Barthes' introduction to the book Tricks, with rough English translation by me and Gemini
​​Les pratiques sexuelles sont banales, pauvres, ​vouées Š la répétition, et cette pauvreté est disproportionnée ä ​l'​émerveillement du plaisir qu'elles ​procurent.
Sexual practices are banal, impoverished, devoted to repetition; this poverty is disproportionate to the marvel of pleasure that they provide.

These corporations are too big to care about the consumer market. Why do we vote for politicians who enable their growth? This obviously leads to poverty and thousands of years of misery and servitude.

An investor has calculated a poverty line of $137k/y "for a family of four to afford housing, health care, child care and other necessities", which is four times the current line. While I think location matters here, this national figure is still a good reminder of American wealth inequality.
https://wapo.st/44ymv6f

An investor called $140,000 the new poverty line. Experts disagreed but said he had a point.
Michael Green’s tally of the costs of raising a family in the U.S. today is going viral, even if some economists scoff at his math.

"How Spain’s community solar revolution is helping families power up and costs go down"
#Spain #SolarPower #Energy

How Spain’s community solar revolution is helping families power up and costs go down | The Optimist Daily
Spain’s community energy movement is transforming rooftops into renewable hubs, lowering bills, and helping families escape fuel poverty.

Musk: Robots Will End Poverty And Make Work Optional - Joe.My.God.
https://www.joemygod.com/2025/11/musk-robots-will-end-poverty-and-make-work-optional/

Yes, it's a higher wage bill for businesses, but it also means more money for people to spend, which means more revenue for those same businesses. And less poverty means a lower benefits bill for the government.
BBC News - Minimum wage to rise again from April to £12.71 for over-21s - BBC News
https://www.bbc.c…

a moment of recognition of the passing of the great #reggae vocalist Jimmy Cliff at age 81..a remarkable talented man whose dynamic performances and voice that emerged from Jamaican poverty brought joy & inspiration to millions around the globe. His international career breakthru came with starring role in the film The Harder They Come in 1972, but he'd already had a greatest hits album out 2 years …

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #AfternoonShow
Gang of Four:
🎵 To Hell With Poverty
#GangofFour
https://gangoffour.bandcamp.com/track/to-hell-with-poverty
https://open.spotify.com/track/5meAeH2xj8CkB5ZUahQJQ6

I like when the #NYPost says the quiet part out loud. See, ending illegal labor practices and paying workers a living wage is "anti-capitalist." Being in favor of #capitalism means being happy crushing your workers and driving them into poverty.
If only they said that more…

The psychology of collective abandonment https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/harnessing-hybrid-intelligence/202511/the-psychology-of-collective-abandonment Why we choose

The Psychology of Collective Abandonment
What psychological mechanisms allow us to pour hundreds of billions into artificial intelligence while 600 million people will live in extreme poverty by 2030?

Iraq is ‘Unrecognizable and Remarkable’ After Decades of Conflict – UN Coordinator Shows Why https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/iraq-unrecognizable-and-remarkable-after-decades-of-conflict-un-coordinator/

Iraq ‘Unrecognizable and Remarkable’ After Decades of Conflict: UN Coordinator
Now, the nation's poverty rate has fallen around 3% in the last 7 years, while more than 5 million internal refugees have returned to their homes

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #NickGrimshaw
Gang of Four:
🎵 To Hell With Poverty
#GangofFour
https://gangoffour.bandcamp.com/track/to-hell-with-poverty
https://open.spotify.com/track/5meAeH2xj8CkB5ZUahQJQ6

I donated to Develop Africa to support students in Sierra Leone.
https://www.developafrica.org/about-develop-africa
"we provide education, child sponsorship, leadership development, workforce empowerment, and more to poverty-stricken African communities. We aid in br…

Desperation and crushing poverty are powerful motivators

Sonnet 103 - CIII
Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth,
That having such a scope to show her pride,
The argument all bare is of more worth
Than when it hath my added praise beside!
O! blame me not, if I no more can write!
Look in your glass, and there appears a face
That over-goes my blunt invention quite,
Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
Were it not sinful then, striving to mend,
To mar the subject that before was well?…

Asset Management Strategist Says It's Time To Rethink How We Measure Poverty | Crooks and Liars
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/11/asset-management-strategist-says-its-time

They told the poor white man:
"You may be starving,
you may be broke,
but at least you aren't one of Them."
It worked.
The poor whites stopped fighting the rich.
They started guarding the rich.
They accepted their poverty -- because they had been given a false sense of superiority.
The "Divide and Rule" algorithm was born.
350 years later, the campaign is still running.
The Elite are still terrified of Unity…

MikeDunnAuthor (@MikeDunnAuthor@kolektiva.social)
Attached: 1 image Andre Gonsalves The most effective marketing campaign in history was launched in 1676. The product was Racism. Before that year, the Elites in America had a massive problem. In the colony of Virginia, poor white indentured servants and black slaves were friends. They worked the same fields. They lived in the same shacks. They even married each other. They realized they had the same enemy: The rich plantation owners. So, they united. Led by a man named Nathaniel Bacon, this…

What have we learned about child poverty in America? (Don Moynihan/Can We Still Govern?)
https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-have-we-learned-about-child
http://www.memeorandum.com/251222/p37#a251222p37

Having just lost many millions making the disasterous bomb film #Megalopolis 86 yr old widower Francis Ford Coppola’s still got pieces of his once vast real estate empire, ranging from a #DaysInn in #Atlanta to plans to convert the…

Inside Francis Ford Coppola’s real estate empire 
The award-winning director may be selling off watches and pleading poverty after his “Megalopolis” flop, but he still holds a surprising collection of assets.

There's a lot to like in this government initiative but concerning that improved heat-tightness (chiefly via insulation) doesn't get the leading emphasis it should have. Instead a lot of emphasis on solar, but the EROI of solar isn't great in the UK.
Skip past the copious puff to the bottom, notes to editors, to find a bit of detail.
Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history - GOV.UK

Families to save in biggest home upgrade plan in British history
Government launches Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the nation's homes, help families cut their energy bills, and tackle fuel poverty.

Uruguay just proved the impossible is possible: they flipped their entire economy to 98% renewable energy in just two years—and slashed poverty in the process.
The secret? They turned crisis into opportunity, made the economic case for clean energy, and sold excess power to neighbors for profit.
No fossil fuel industry to fight made it easier, but the lessons are universal.

The Way Things Are Is Not the Way They Have to Be
Award-winning journalist Natasha Hakimi Zapata shows that ‘Another World Is Possible’.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #ChrisHawkins
Gang of Four:
🎵 To Hell With Poverty
#GangofFour
https://gangoffour.bandcamp.com/track/to-hell-with-poverty
https://open.spotify.com/track/5meAeH2xj8CkB5ZUahQJQ6

I had a womens studies professor try to coax a class to understand
that it’s not ’wrong’ for an alcoholic homeless person
to take your change you tossed and spend it on alcohol.
People were livid lol.
It really changed my perspective on giving.
it's freeing to give without expectation.
-- @inthemidwest.bsky.social

Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd.bsky.social)
I once taught a whole lesson on the narratives of deservedness in the very strange concept of “stealing” books from something conspicuously branded as a “free” little library. The students struggled with it. A lot of internalized beliefs about poverty and worth. But I think it was a good lesson. [contains quote post or other embedded content]

Good Morning #Canada
#HappyBirthday to the Honourable Cairine Reay Mackay Wilson who the first woman to be appointed to the Senate in Canada. Her appointment in 1930 marked the end of an era during which women in Canada were denied civil rights. Born in Montréal on February 4, 1885, into a wealthy Scottish-Canadian family, Cairine Reay Mackay married Norman F. Wilson, the Liberal Member of Parliament for Russell, Ontario, in 1909. In 1919, the Wilson family moved to Ottawa, where Mrs. Wilson soon became heavily involved in politics. Her privileged background did not stop her from publicly denouncing appeasement of Hitler, defying her own government to bring in #WWII Jewish refugees, or a lifetime commitment to child poverty and refugees. And she had time to fight for women's rights to be in government by founding the National Federation of Liberal Women of Canada in 1928 and the Twentieth Century Liberal Association in 1930.
#CanadaIsAwesome #CanadianHeroes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairine_Wilson

While trying to understand why the American middle class feels poorer each year despite healthy GDP growth and low unemployment,
I came across a sentence buried in a research paper:
“The U.S. poverty line is calculated as three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for inflation.”
I read it again.
Three times the minimum food budget.
I felt sick.

Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America

Uruguay just proved the skeptics wrong. In only two years, the country shifted to 98% renewable electricity—and poverty rates dropped as a result.
This wasn't some slow, painful transition. It was rapid, economically beneficial, and shows that decarbonization doesn't have to hurt. The economic case for clean energy is real, and we need to stop being afraid to make it.

The Way Things Are Is Not the Way They Have to Be
Award-winning journalist Natasha Hakimi Zapata shows that ‘Another World Is Possible’.

Dr. Gladys West,
the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology,
has died. She passed away Saturday, surrounded by her loving family. She was 95.
Born into poverty on a Virginia farm during the Jim Crow era, West grew up in a segregated South where opportunity was scarce.
Through determination and extraordinary academic talent,
she graduated first in her high school class and earned a scholarship to Virginia State College …

Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95
ALEXANDRIA, VA — Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She passed away

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #PositiveVibrations
Jah Lil, Tanzie:
🎵 POVERTY
#JahLil #Tanzie
#newRelease 🆕 single
https://open.spotify.com/track/2D7xDnl9vtBAtVfxMipmmE