EMPIRE COLLAPSE
December 11, 2025
Could this open a path to a future of community and compassion?
The US Empire may have run its course. The last assets of America being cannibalized by the techno-fascist billionaire class hovering around Washington DC and Silicon Valley. The vultures of Wall Street are perched to sell the top of the stock market. We could be on the precipice of an economic crash as brutal as the world suffered in the 1930s.
For millions of Americans the Great Depression 2.0 has been their reality for that last few years. There was a 32% increase in the number of Americans who became homeless during the Biden Presidency.
The month long disruption of SNAP food stamps that forced 47 million people to worry about their next meal was a wakeup call for America.
But even before the SNAP disaster Americans were struggling. I have been getting calls nearly everyday for that past four years from all over the country seeking food. Many haven’t eaten in days. Others tell me they are eating canned cat food or have only one box of cereal in their pantry. Often these are seniors who have been referred to me by a health insurance company who gave them a $100 gift card when they signed up for Medicare Advantage. When the money runs out they call the number on the back.
United Health gave the Food Not Bombs toll free number to a woman in Corpus Christi, Texas during the first week of December. She told me that the Meals On Wheels waiting list was months long, the food bank couldn’t help her because she couldn’t drive and when she called SNAP they said they had run out of money. She is typical of my dozen or more such conversations I have each day. Fortunately I was able to direct her to Tacos Not Bombs.
The economy really is a house of cards. Families forced to buy ever more expensive groceries with credit cards at 20% interest. There is little money left after paying rent.
Meanwhile AI companies are using a circular financing scheme promising each other $300 billion contracts to gin up the value of their stocks and the Federal Reserve rushes billions in overnight repro (repurchase agreement) to save banks from defaulting on their obligations. One giant economic crashing Enron style Ponzi Scheme ready to crash. Get ready.
The number of people coming to eat with their local Food Not Bombs group is already on the increase. A collapse could send additional torrents of people seeking food and material support.
When industry and businesses closed sending millions into unemployment after the 1929 crash there were no food banks, soup kitchens or established mutual aid groups like we have today. And thankfully if food banks and foundation funded meal programs are used by the authorities to force compliance with the dystopian programs of control there is already a strong and growing network of hundreds independent mutual aid groups like Food Not Bombs that will refuse to cooperate
.The closest relief effort to that of Food Not Bombs was the Catholic Worker. In response to the savage hunger around her a young woman from New York named Dorothy Day started the first Catholic Worker soup kitchen in the Lower East Side of Manhattan New York. The depression had already been inflicting pain when their first pot of soup was removed from the stove and they spooned out the first bowls of stew. Unlike Food Not Bombs they had to learn the art of the soup line when the crisis was already unbearable.
This time when all goes bust there are hundreds of experienced cooks and logistic experts are at the ready in hundreds of American cities. Volunteers that have years of practice providing the most essential gifts of food, water, clothing and companionship. They have personal relationships with those working at groceries, bakeries and a whole network of local support. Many local Food Not Bombs chapters have been active for decades.
Our network of resources and support are already well established. Volunteers understand logistics, a skill that translates into being capable of providing hundreds of hot meals and emergency relief efforts after hurricanes, fires and social upheaval. Most Food Not Bombs groups are in a position to respond.
EMPIRE COLLAPSE – Could this open a path to a future of community and compassion?https://keithmchenry.substack.com/p/empire-collapse
UNITED HEALTHCARE’S HUNGER GAMES AND THE MURDER OF BRIAN THOMPSON
December 4, 2024
United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed this morning in New York City. His net worth was estimated at approximately $42.9 million as of February 16, 2024, according to Wallmine.com, yet I spend my days talking with his clients who often haven’t eaten in days and are seeking groceries.
I get the first of what would be between 10 to 20 calls a day from seniors seeking food in February 2023. “Are you Community meals? United Healthcare gave me your number.”
It wasn’t but a couple weeks into this sudden flood of requests for food when I went on line and found the number for the CEO&’s office of United Healthcare to see if they could stop sending people my way and instead refer their clients to 211 or food programs in their local area. The women who answered each week were sympathetic and claimed they would correct the situation. But the calls continued to today.
At first people would say they had called the number on the back of the benefit card that United Healthcare had provided. The $100 on the cards had run out and they were confused thinking they would get $100 a month for food. When United Healthcare gave them the sad news they suggested they call Community Meals at 1-800-884-1136. I would try to see if a local Food Not Bombs group could help but often all I could suggest is to call 211, their county offices or United Way.
People called from Hawaii, California, Texas, Maryland, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Maine and all across the South East.
The stories were heart breaking. One older woman in Georgia was down to three cans of tuna and didn’t even have bread for a sandwich. A man in Florida hadn’t eaten in days but he sure was proud of his guns. He would call six months later.
An older lady called from rural Tennessee. She had just been housed after being homeless. She had a car but no money and not enough gas to get to town even if she could afford to buy groceries. She lived a two or three hour drive from our groups in Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville. Too far for our volunteers to deliver groceries.
One of the most heartbreaking calls was from James, a man in his seventies who lived with his diabetic wife and disabled son. The food pantries in his county and the neighboring counties had closed down because they couldn’t keep up with the needs. He lived on $800 a month, was not able to afford the co-pay for his wife’s insulin nor his own cancer medicine. He said it was already 105 degrees outside and he couldn’t pay his electric bill so his two old window unit air conditioners wouldn’t be working by week’s end. He started to cry telling me he had worked his whole life and always paid his taxes. Like many others he was angry we could pay for war while turning our backs on the American people.
I had been off the phone for about five minutes when a senior from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina rings. She hadn’t eaten in three days and was desperate for help.
Many of those who call introduce themselves as calling from United Healthcare and have a senior on the line that needs home delivery of groceries. I suggest their client call that 211 number or their county offices. I also ask them to remove my number and direct everyone to the 211 service, the local United Way or county offices.
As of December 2024 United Healthcare has a market cap of $561.15 Billion USD. This makes United Healthcare the world’s 16th most valuable company by market cap according to CompaniesMarketcap.com.
With the billions United Healthcare makes they could have hired a team of social workers to investigate a realistic policy of directing the hungry to services that could help rather than sending people to a group that shares food with the homeless.
Keith McHenry
PO Box 422
Santa Cruz, CA 95061 USA
575-770-3377
keith@foodnotbombs.net
Anarchistcook's Weblog 