Cranberrygate?

Happy New Year to our legions of followers and casual readers. May the new year bring you and
yours physical, economic and metaphysical good tidings.

Okay, We know it's a little late, but isn't it the thought that counts? Besides, we have been so very busy since we turned the calendar page that everyone should just cut us some slack. Besides, not to let the cat out of the bag, but a little subterfuge may help us deflect the trashing of our collective privacy by the NSA. Their software algorithms won't know what to do with New Years greetings sent out ten days late. Nixon may have had an enemies list, but at least he didn't treat all our personal communications like party-line chatter.

One of our early-year events was a quick trip back to New York to visit old friends and give them all the opportunity to laud us for the Red Sox victory in the World Series. Not that the View has ever been at the Uber-fan level of enthusiasm, at least not since Ted Williams retired, but we certainly bore many years of affinity abuse from all those Yankee fans while living in New York. Suffice it to say, revenge is certainly a dish best enjoyed cold.





Yum Yum!

2014 is shaping up to be, among other things, a big election year. Here in the Bay State, it may finally be one of those infrequent years where the Republicans have a good showing. There are a number of strong announced candidates for the major state offices as well as other races. To wit, a number of competitive candidates have already emerged in our own Massachusetts Ninth Congressional District to unseat the great Bill Keating.

We don't think it's a coincidence that Bill just announced a new initiative leveraging his role as founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Cranberry Caucus (?)  to have the USDA purchase more than $ 28 million of cranberries to both support the prices for the cranberry farmers and to provide food stock for low income families needing food assistance.

As Mr. Keating explains:

“The USDA’s announcement is a great example of good, smart government at work,” said Rep. Keating. “The purchase of the excess cranberry crops will benefit local growers and entire industry while providing healthy food options for some of our most vulnerable families. It’s a win-win by all accounts in my book.”

 Cranberries may, or may not be a healthy option for those vulnerable families, but the fruit is virtually inedible without tons of sugar or some further form of processing. I hope they have ample security when the vulnerable set finds out about the free cranberries and mob the food pantries, demanding more. Maybe, it's really a win-win-win, when you consider the expanded need for sugar to make the cranberries suitable for consumption, but we are sure that the congressional delegations from the sugar-producing states are already taking full credit.

According to a recent Cape Cod Today  ARTICLE, the growers are only receiving $10 per hundred pounds, for a product that costs them $25 to produce. We hate to see anybody fall on hard times, but maybe, just maybe, the market is delivering a lesson in economics to this niche commodity. And, apparently The USDA, paying more than two and a half over market to feed the poor, marginally-edible food, passes for "good, smart government" in the Halls of Congress.

Once again, happy new year to all, especially the politicians. We can't wait to her Bill Keating trying to offer his cranberry "win-win" as a balance sheet credit against the major debit stemming from his support of the Obamacare fiasco.

Stay tuned.