Let `em Eat Grocery Stores

I figured it was only a matter of time before some mainstream journalist invoked the specter of Communism to scare the shit out of New Yorkers into voting against the Z man.

Sure enough, right on cue, Kathleen Parker, columnist for the Washington Post, weighs in with her reminiscences about visiting grocery stores in East Germany and Cuba back in the day.

Oh, brother. Where to start? How `bout here…

The Z man is Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Muslim Democratic Socialist who won last month's Democratic nomination and is now the front runner to win November’s general election.

Unless mainstreamers, like Parker, manage to scare enough New Yorkers into voting against him.

And re-electing Mayor Eric Adams--apparently Parker's favorite. Despite the fact that he was indicted on bribery charges, which the Justice Department dropped after Adams successfully sucked up to Trump.

Proving that Trump's eliminated corruption in America. In his own sorta corrupt way.

Anyway...

Not sure what most scares mainstreamers about Mamdani. There being so many possibilities...

His religion. His Democratic Socialism. His support of Palestinian rights. His criticism of Israel’s slaughter of Gazans. All of the above. Or, his proposal to put city-run grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods--aka, food deserts--that have no grocery stores at all.

It was that proposal that sent Parker wandering down memory lane, as she wrote...

“I've been to government grocery stores–in Cuba and East Germany, back in the day–and you really don't want socialist bureaucrats selecting your comestibles. Remember what shelves looked like during the pandemic? That’s the way they always are in the socialist and communist countries that I visited.”

Okay, let's break this down a bit.

For one thing, Cuba and East Germany are/were Communist not socialist countries, when Parker visited them.

Big difference. I suspect she might have seen plenty of comestibles on the shelves in places like Denmark or Norway or Sweden. You know, socialist countries.

Hey, Ms. Parker--here's a grocery store in Sweden...

For another Cuba was, and is, under an American embargo intended to ruin their economy in the hopes of inspiring a counter-revolt of the masses, enraged because, among other things, grocery-store shelves are empty. 

So you might say Cuba's empty grocery-store shelves are an American success story. Speaking of Americans...

We have plenty of empty grocery-store shelves right here in the good ol' USA--and not just during the pandemic. In fact, we have those aforementioned food deserts, which explains, again, why Mamdani wants to create government-grocery stores in poor neighborhoods.

I’ll go one step further. When it comes to operating grocery stores in poor neighborhoods, capitalism is as big a failure as communism. Maybe greater. At least the communist countries have grocery stores. Unlike parts of New York City. And Chicago. And Detroit. And…oh, you get the idea.

Which again--one more time--is why Mamdani’s proposing to put government-run grocery stores in a handful of low-income neighborhoods. 

Not sure what Eric Adams intends to do about food deserts. Probably nothing. As he’s most likely figured out that when it comes to running for office--the less you do about inequities the better off you will be. Definitely helps with fundraising.

And winning support from mainstreamers--like Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post.