Grew up on military bases. Around age 11, I realized that I lived in communism because there was no private property and I had to show ID to do anything.

Jasper: Complaining that every thing people already do is like the Soviet Union is "nonsensical" - Oh, you bet that's the Soviet Union!

Growing up, all my clothes came from the PX. Of course, they only sold Mao suits.

I'm looking forward to the increase in quality of local bodega borscht

Oh man I forgot about the Commissary and the Exchange! Yeah buddy, ask the military families how THEY feel about buying all their household needs at the state-controlled markets.

It's actually pretty great. So great that I still shop there as a veteran even though every other option is available to me.

Don't forget the class VI store!

Was that part of the Exchange? I don't remember those. But to be fair, I haven't set foot on a base since I was probably 16 or 17.

I couldn't say. Like you (it sounds like), I was an army brat. My parents definitely shopped there, and I probably sat in the car a time or two while one of them ran inside on one post or another but that's it.

My guess, though, is they would've been physically separate, the better to control access.

I was a navy brat, and yeah separate shops make sense at least for the cigarettes and alcohol, which would explain why I wasn't personally familiar with that before.

I just googled, and apparently their location varied. On some posts they could've been inside the PX (or BX, for you?). Google also says the Navy didn't call their package stores Class VI stores; only the Army and AF did. So there you go. Fun reminiscing, right?!

I feel so oppressed by the lower prices.

The absolute worst part is going to the nice gym with a pool for free beforehand.

Ask them how they feel about being able to buy Blanton's at the Commissary.

They'll tell you it is *awesome* because goods are cheaper & no tax.

My mom would buy cartons of cigarettes from them when she got the chance because it was so cheap.

I think at the bases I was at that was just a part of the exchange. I remember buying all my earliest comics off the racks there.

Those places get busier than Costco on a Sunday

Especially right after the 15th or the 30th!

When Spouse was early career, a trip to DC included a stop at the MCX. I used to get a beautiful Coach bag for my birthday every couple years because we could afford the splurge.

I don’t think I set foot in a civilian grocery store until high school. If the commissary didn’t have it, our house didn’t, either.

This was my first thought when this argument popped up since we’ve shopped at the government-owned and operated commissary grocery store my entire life.

Lol. The eyes of the shoppers in the PX and commissary are dead. Oh, and the class VI store too, of course.

My mom used to take me with her to shop for groceries i. Commissary. All my clothing was from there. 😄

When I buy stuff from the museum gift shop - Soviet Union.

One time I bought a ginger ale during an intermission at the Kennedy Center and the USSR anthem played.

The christmas gifts my dad would buy at his Air Force bases BX: total commie stuff.

Ironically, the groceries in socialism were a lot better than the shit they sell us under capitalism. Cool, I have the choice between 25 different strawberry yogurts with no taste and too much sugar, from a cow close to death…

I was just about to say, where does this person think military families shop? Government-run stores, healthcare, and so much more, often much better than what’s available to civilians.

Public grocery experiences can be really great. Went to the Navy Exchange all the time as NAS Pensacola growing up. Was the best grocery in town, and might still be.

When I went, the Commissary at Pendleton had to institute policies to keep people from bringing non-military in to shop there. It ain’t perfect, but it was cheap. (We got around it by having mom pay for everything and I’d pay her back afterwards.)

my politics at least are informed as much from spending much of my childhood and teen years on military bases as it is anything else bsky.app/profile/indi...

You know all the farmers markets we go to? They are usually state subsidized. I think they are great!

There should be a challenge coin for military brats.

I suspect that a lot of people's minds would short-circuit if they woke up in an environment without advertising. Like culture shock, but deeper.

hell, ask anyone how they feel about state-provided fire control, police, education, military, or gosh, space travel (*cough* elon). when are americans gonna give up their phobia of socialism & recognize it's the scare term the rich use to keep money in their own pockets?

comes down to money v morals. greed v grace.

Don’t tell them about the dental and health care…

I spent my entire childhood on military bases too. 👍🏼

commissary, exchange, tricare, base housing or subsidized off-base housing, MWR amenities. military families are living in a socialist bubble

I'll never forget the voice telling you which aisle to go to for check out

I've got great memories of driving up to the commissary at Fort Dix and filling the station wagon with a month's worth of food. All while dad was going to Army War College and writing about communism and the Cold War

Being military is no picnic, but the perks help offset the lowish wages. My dad, brother and nephews all did stints and GI bill, VA, disability due to action, and commissary were all part of the deal. (don't get me started on Congress being stingy . . )

Can’t complain about a PX, but when we worked at Embassy London the State Dept. wouldn’t give us a cost of living allowance fixed to local grocery prices but instead said we could shop at the U.S. military commissary in Ruislip - which was almost an hour’s drive! That did feel a little Stalinesque.

I've always wondered why military healthcare isn't used as a template for universal healthcare. And then I remember about all the for-profit system blood suckers like insurance companies.

It kind of was—when you hear “Medicare for All” it’s basically the same as “Tricare for All.”

they both need to be replaced with a call for universal healthcare. i've been on medicare for a few years now, & i deeply appreciate it as a benefit, *one i paid for* for many years. but it actually is kind of a mess, esp trying to figure out which supplement (read "private insurer) to go with.

it's annoying & confusing & apparently designed that way, thus exploitative as well. near impossible for folks with limited intelligence (inc dementia) & education to navigate. i know this too well, as i was decades (ret.) a phd healthcare provider! from both sides, private sector ruins it for all!

bsky.app/profile/chuc... I just posted this in another thread. That "jet-setting writer" needs to get out more.

Literally this idea is less radical than a library. You still PAY for the groceries. And if the choice is a government store or none at all, it's not exactly oppression. My guess is he's just going to outsource it to ShopRite or Aldi to run, and then have the city backstop the losses to x%.

PX had a little corral to drop your kids off while you shopped.

Don’t tell the man about godless, duty free zones in airports.

Growing up Air Force: let’s see what would happen if all of your and your family’s basic needs were taken care of? Housing, food, health, education?

I think the PX is a much better example of what to aspire to than state liquor stores – or at least the state liquor stores bundled with wholesale monopolies.

NAAFI ftw

I grew up living off base in a military family. The Exchange and Commissary were so well run compared to the closer Giant and Safeway that we would exclusively shop there for large periods of my childhood.

for my own part, i think municipalities should absolutely experiment with publicly-owned services like grocery stores.

When I get my vision tested at the DMV, it is a Stalinesque nightmare

NYC has a long history of municipally constructed and owned markets (the vendors themselves were private businesses). See mailchi.mp/urbanarchive... My family shopped in one of these in the early '60s because its produce was superior to that available in our (cooperatively owned) supermarket

Might help address the food, desert problem

Thank you speech to text for the gratuitous comma

Thank, you

Especially as grocery stores become increasingly monopolized. Glad the Kroger/Albertson’s merger failed.

Get the more pressing things public first, like health care, prisons, detention centers. Grocery stores are fine.

New Hampshire runs all the liquor stores in the state, although you can get beer and wine at grocery stores, I believe.

also banks! there was talk about doing this thru the USPS (under biden?), & it's such a great idea because - unlike privately owned banks - public banks provide checking accounts & loan access *for-profit* banks actually CAN as well, but instead withhold. for profits. interest on savings low, tho.

lower to zero income folks are now shut out from so much cuz they can't pay rent or utilities with a check, or have paychecks or other pmts auto-deposited. amazing how much nasty greed can be lifted by getting rid of the profit motive; it's a trap. excess $$ is actually an insidious anvil, a burden.

But in Raleigh, that could mean fewer grocery stores. We only have 75 now.

Yes, I think Democrats having a solution to "The economy is leaving people behind" would be a winning strategy

In PA where I live, all alcohol (not beer or wine) is sold in state controlled liquor stores. The downside is very little selection and much higher prices. The same bottle of Makers Mark I buy in PA for $63 costs about $47 in NY. Their wine selection is bad, but I can buy that in grocery stres

Right? I love that we're talking about a pilot program, not a massive rollout. 5 stores, 1 in each boro. There are benchmarks they have to hit before the program expands. So if they suck, you don't have to go! If they're great & the # of municipal stores grows, that prob means they don't suck!

Curious do right wingers know what a bodega is that they delightfully call a deli to not seem ethnic? In the Soviet bloc bodegas were state owned. Funnier still every republican who went to cpac Hungary as a smoker tobacco stores are state regulated and controlled.

Yeah honestly I have doubts about the idea, but what’s the harm in trying, especially on such a limited scale? Everyone hyperventilating about it seems like they’re worried that it might actually work.

A town near me went municipal with electricity and usually provides lower power rates for taxpayers

But if it worked well (profitably) the free market types would get upset and make rules against a free market.

That would be an interesting way to combat food deserts

and the USPS should provide banking services

New Hampshire, Mr. Live Free or Die state, has uber-functional state-run stores for "get yah beer here"

If you can’t get produce, dairy, and meat a 10 minute walk, ideally 5, from your home that’s a failure of both the market and the government. Efforts should be made to remedy it.

I mean if whassisname is going to close all of the Gristedes stores, then the city can just take them over

At the very least farmers markets.

If the free market leads to food deserts, then municipalities should definitely try public owned grocery stores.

Dense populations, rural populations - food deserts in booth and publicly funded solutions are continuously proven to WORK

I would like to imagine a world where towns and cities generate more revenue from providing groceries to citizens than they do harassing them with cops

Co-op grocery is the way

Or, say, high speed internet

The first thing I thought of. This is like saying you would never use municipal fiber internet. Mamdani isn’t suggesting banning private groceries, it’s just another option in the market

Now imagine Eric Adams being in charge of the publicly owned grocery stores and decided to fill the shelves with MAHA approved foods.

I'd think that I'd want to proceed with that only after a broad examination of the market failures leading to the need to do that. What are they? Are they correctable in other ways? What are the pros and cons of different approaches?

The primary market "failure" is one of monopolization

screenshotted because he turned off quote posts and replies, as usual

With a name like “Thomas Chatterton Williams” it sounds like he stepped out of a time portal from the antebellum South

Rich white people problems. I only buy the name brands. It makes me feel special...

"I want my social media thrust upon unwanting eyes, but I'm not so into the whole *discourse* thing."

Cause he's moron.

He’s just a verbose blowhard posing as an intellectual.

Man, that guy super sucks.

if only he could chatter less, alas

😁

He does chatter a ton.

If anyone ever doubted whether you are a true American hero, this should seal the deal.

Thinkounce Chatterton Williams

Unfortunately, he does it a ton.

Nominative determinism strikes again

I mean. Look at his name. (my government name is equally as colonial-settler-ass sounding, but that's why I said fuck it and chose my current much better name for general use)

He was getting rightfully thrashed.

You’d think he’d have caught on by now.

thomas chatternone williams

every time i see the that name, i immediately picture some prep school wanker who orders everything for delivery from whole foods anyway

Worse, he's a prep school wanker who owns a chateau in France

called it lol

Where’d the money come from?

Realizing i may have confused him for some other dip ship who moved to France. He's NJ suburbs, catholic day school, fancy college, Paris

No this dude lives in a fuckin chateau. He’s the guy

i think we can all agree that he just sucks

His sister in law, probably.

Who is?

I went to block that account and realized I already blocked him. 👍

He just adores free speech. It's his favorite.

He's such a weenie.

This annoyed me so much and I did the same. This dude sucks

also because everyone else already blocked that idiot

bsky.app/profile/tams...

My wife was born in the Soviet Union. Anyway, Gristedes is a shithole.

Been to Soviet Union and Russia many times. Lived in Paris and Manhattan. Gristedes is the worst. Liquor-stores (over 8% alcoholrate) are Government monopoly stores in Sweden and Finland. Electricity comp. (EDF) and Public transportation -metro+buses in Paris(RATP) are government owned. Who is TCW?

Sneaking into Sam’s Club without showing my ID like a Soviet Dissident. “I will not be part of the machine.”

Oh wow, someone should write and publish a letter decrying such intolerance of opposing views

Me: *crying* you can't keep calling every case of the government selling things a Soviet Union TCW: *points at basically any train in France where he lives* Soviet Union.

This part! TCW trash-talking NYC when he is basically a tourist there continues to annoy me. Has he written about the banlieues even once?

He has, on occasion. The results are … exactly as you might expect

Although, not all banlieusards are racaille! Some (Africans, not Arabs, mind you, and certainly foreigners or immigrants rather than actually French) defy stereotypes, "acrobatically"

Sad that he knows he can't compete in the marketplace of ideas so engineers himself an echo chamber.

Definitely. That brings back memories I thought I'd buried Jamelle. Lol.

Funny how all the things we give to soldiers are literally Stalin when given to ordinary citizens. Healthcare, clothing, shoes, childcare, housing, commissaries, etc...

my LTC, Reagan stepfather point-blank refused to buy groceries anywhere but the BX

*Reaganite, the man was not literally Reagan though he perhaps secretly wanted to be

🤣

Yeah I was just about to laugh because the US already runs socialized grocery stores for the military.

More like commies-sary

😂😂😂😂😂

When I mail a letter from New York to Hawaii for 60 cents, that's also the Soviet Union

Liquor from the class six 😉

I don't often get to the commissary as the nearest one is 130 miles away, but when I go to the VA I make a point of loading up. You'd be amazed how many groceries (an old-fashioned word according to Yam Tits) you can fit in a Smart car.

I went to the commissary for the first time ever with my mom a few weeks ago since my dad was in the military. It’s not just like a cheap ass place but actually a really nice shopping experience - clean, well lit, very organized, displays look great. It’s waaaaaay better than like a Wal Mart.

In Alabama the state owns ALL distilled alcohol distribution.

in the Soviet Union you have to tip the baggers because the state doesn't pay them

My grandfather was retired US Army and my favorite thing was going to the PX at the bases in Northern Virginia. Communism!

In Soviet Union, groceries and liquor come to you. Oh wait, that's Doordash.

I use that PX/commissary argument with magafolk all the time.

Oh, yeah - especially now that they've opened the Exchange to veterans for tax-free online shopping.

School lunches are literally the CCP.

I've shopped at several barioshka stores in the 70's, and you need to experience a clerk ignoring you and filing her nails for 20 minutes before she acknowledges your existence.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryozk...

Closest thing I ever saw to actual communism was the US Army

Ironically, it's also the kind of communism that people imagine as the ideal...a massive safety net and job security surrounded by capitalism you can benefit from where and when you choose.

Working at my mandated job for my mandated pay so I can go buy an iPhone.

We have an employee owned supermarket in the UK and it is the fancy one called Waitrose and Partners